Reinforcing ceramic oil diffusers

[Claylady00]

Hi everyone!!

I’ve seen unglazed ceramic “reeds” for oil diffusers on the market, and I am attempting to make some myself. However, since these are essentially thin long rods, the pieces constantly break before firing them (I will be firing them at a cone 05). I was curious as to whether reinforcing the pieces with Kemper high temp wire in a 24 gauge could be helpful, or if the clay would crack during firing. Does anyone have any insight into this? 

Thank you!!!!

[Babs]

As clay shrinks as dries it will crack off the wire I think.

Makes your diffusers a bit expensive..

The clay body may make a difference to your success rate

Maybe your process.

Roll or extrude your object,  smooth and place directly into prefired  "box"

Fill box. Leave to dry or dry in low oven

Place box in kiln and fire.

I do this with small oilpots.

Less breakages

[liambesaw]

Try extruding them and letting them dry directly on a kiln shelf so you can just transfer them to the kiln without touching them

[Callie Beller Diesel]

Adding some paper pulp to your clay could also help. It’ll make your green ware a lot stronger and the finished piece more porous. 

[JohnnyK]

What kind of clay are you using? You might find a^10 clay bisqued to ^05 would be a good choice for this project...

[Claylady00]

On 4/26/2020 at 2:39 PM, Callie Beller Diesel said:

Adding some paper pulp to your clay could also help. It’ll make your green ware a lot stronger and the finished piece more porous. 

Would adding paper pulp affect firing?

[Claylady00]

On 4/26/2020 at 3:14 PM, JohnnyK said:

What kind of clay are you using? You might find a^10 clay bisqued to ^05 would be a good choice for this project...

I’m using a Come 05 white clay

[Callie Beller Diesel]

1 hour ago, Claylady00 said:

Would adding paper pulp affect firing?

You have to make sure your kiln is vented properly, but other than that, it’s fine. It’s used all the time in sculptural applications. There are more threads on paper clay if you search from the home page, but generally you soak down some sort of cheap paper fibre (tp or newsprint are easy to obtain and commonly used, but some have favourite fibres like cotton linters) and shred it as though you were making homemade paper. It’s tempting to use cellulose attic insulation, but don’t: it’s been treated with fire retardant, and that probably IS bad for the kiln elements, and anyone near the firing.  Wring the resulting pulp out gently and add it to some kind of clay slurry. Well blended reclaim is often the most convenient, although if your clay supplier sells dry bags of your favourite clay that can also be an option. A very rough 80/20 eyeball-it-by-volume ratio is what I was taught to use, but there’s a lot of room for flex in this recipe. Once you have the pulp mixed thoroughly in to the clay with a drill and a paint mixing bit, dry it on a plaster bat until it’s a workable consistency. It’s a good idea to either mix it in small batches that will be used within a week or so, or dry the remainder out in thin sheets that can be reconstituted easily. You can do this by dipping them quickly in water and covering in plastic. The reason you want to do this is because the pulp will begin to rot and create a truly eye watering unholy stink if left wet. 
 

Paper fibre added to clay gives it incredible strength while the piece is wet and in the dry green state. Paper clay pieces can be attached to each other when they’re at wildly different states of dryness without cracking. It’s good to bear in mind that the end piece will be more porous than the same clay without the paper pulp would be though. In your case, that could be a selling point though.