I have a student who has created a highly detailed relief sculpture using low fire clay. It’s about 11” x 17”. She’s done a great job keeping it well wrapped while working on it. I think she is anxious it might break during the bisque firing. I told her to minimize the risk of it breaking we would:
-let it dry slowly, unwrapping and then rewrapping daily to slowly allow exchange of air
-we can put wax on any protruding delicate areas to promote even drying
-candling after bone dry and slow ramp up during bisque firing
-silica sand on kiln shelf to reduce drag as work shrinks
-if it does break during bisque (hopefully not) I told her we can mend with Bisque Fix and refire
-even if it breaks with glaze firing we can glue or she could do kintsugi (her piece is an Asian inspired relief sculpture so it would look nice)
Despite all reassurance she is asking about creating a mold of her clay sculpture as it is currently leather hard, prior to bisque firing, just in case it were to break then she could cast it in plaster. I have experience with dental alginate but never with low fire clay you are hoping to fire. I’m worried her sculpture might get damaged just in the process of making the mold (? undercuts). Also, I know she will loose some fine detail. I know alginate will frequently trap air pockets and then she would have to fix those at some point. She stated if the clay was damaged at this leather hard stage due to the mold making she could repair it.
My question is if it’s worth all the trouble making a frame, purchasing $50 of alginate (if even that’s the best product), soaping it with a release (which I don’t know if that will impact the clay, firing and glazing?) just because she is fearful it might break? is alginate even the right product? Will soaping the clay create problems with drying, firing or glazing? To me it sounds like an expensive and timely process just to avoid the “possibility” of it breaking, which given the steps I mentioned we would likely avoid. Any advice is most appreciated.
