Porcelain sculpting question

[mongraffito]

Hello,

As Im moving from sculpting stone into porcelain, I have a million questions (even after reading extensively books & watching videos.)
In particular, to figurine building but anyone working with porcelain could help.

How long after taking a small piece out of the mold (slip casting) can other small parts be attached/glued with slip to the other piece? As I did not fire yet, will the parts hold together in the kiln?

And is it reasonable to think that, if I made a figurine out of porcelain clay (hand-modeled this time) and fire the parts (arms, head etc) separately could they be glued (epoxy?) together?

Thanks!

[Bill Kielb]

Porcelain is clay so attaching things works best at the greenware stage. Same technique as attaching most clays. Some folks score, some don’t. Most use slip. For sculpture (and some handles for wares) often the pieces have to be supported in place until  dry enough to support themselves. As always, works best when both pieces are relatively the same dryness but not certainly bone dry. Leather hard is the saying or perhaps a bit softer.

And yes, epoxy after firing is perfectly acceptable and often easiest for some parts of complex shapes.

slip and score video here: 

 

[Callie Beller Diesel]

When you’re attaching slipcast parts to each other, it is best done as Bill says, at the leather hard state. That means still damp, but stiff enough to handle. Usually you just need a little of the casting slip to attach items, and scoring is less necessary due to the deflocculant in the clay mix.