using wire or glaze to attach broken greenware sculpture

[rel]

I spent days making a cone 10 sculptural piece. when almost bone dry, while moving it an attached base piece came off.   I am really trying to reattach the broken piece and am thinking about various methods and stages. I do not want to simply "do it again" if I can otherwise fix it.

Both pieces are still in perfect shape, closed forms and smooth sides. See photos. It is the small base piece that came off..  Originally put on with "score and slip" and dried VERY VERY slowly.

I am wondering about two options : 1. attaching at the glaze stage by saturating the bisque small areas and then glazing until they stick, OR,  2. I am really wondering what people think about using appropriate wire to simply stick straight wire pieces at the original attachment area from one to the other for initial bisque and therefore they would be attached when ready to glaze?

I really want this to work. this is the only one of a few that did this, it may have been the design balance issue...  I am uploading and HOPE they come thru to show the base piece I am talking about.

THANKS< ANY IDEAS ARE WELCOME !

[JohnnyK]

When I was taking my original Ceramics 1 college class, the students were always breaking bone dry pieces. One of the methods used for reattaching the broken pieces was to make a slip using the same clay and mixing it with white vinegar. Then we would score the attachment areas, paint them with straight vinegar, paint them with slip and stick 'em back together. It worked most of the time.     I hope that is a ^10 clay that you are using and not a red earthenware clay...

[rel]

Hi Johnny, thanks for you response. Yes, this is cone 10, a wonderful Sheffield clay that I have had great luck with. the vinegar method hasn't seen good luck in my studio, esp with flat smooth pieces. But that may be all that's left....Spooze method.. I am soaking dried clay body pieces as we speak.  I will see if anyone has any ideas about he wires.

cheers from Maine

 

[Kelly in AK]

I can’t speak to the wire idea, never tried it, haven’t a clue. I do notice that gravity is in your favor here, glazing the bits together will likely work. Since it’s a sculpture and not subjected to repeated loads (like a handle, for instance), I wouldn’t hesitate to rely on glaze to fuse the pieces. 

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Hello Kelly in AK. This is hopeful. I had thought of the gravity issue, total bonus. And I've been intrigued by the concept of glaze as glue but no one i know had done it.

I saw the technique discussed somewhere, soak both pieces at  the small part of the bisque ware where it will be connected, so that the glaze will NOT dry when glazed, then add the second piece and hope that stays.  Is that your info, the method ?

[Rae Reich]

I can foresee glazing difficulties if you succeed in reattaching the foot before glazing, primarily consistent glaze application. I am assuming you will want a very clean looking glaze finish rather than piled-on layers. 

If you pre-drill the bisque pieces to accept metal anchors and then glaze and fire them separately, epoxy and anchors would be the most-likely-to-last repair (clean attachment area and holes thoroughly before firing).

If you want to try the glaze-as-glue technique, I would still glaze each piece separately, then set them into the kiln touching where you want. Dampen the glazed places that you want to join and smush them together when on the kiln shelf. This join will be more fragile and could still break (it’s just a thin coat of glass with less integrity than clay) with careless handling. 

[rel]

Thank you Rae. A further question about your thoughts is below. Yes,  i want a clean look. It is now bone dry, both pieces.  I am not going to do the wire fix. I am thinking spooze the pieces together and bisque carefully. Then glaze very carefully. I tend to simple glazing and/or oxides. I use a cone 10 gas kiln.

The glaze method you suggest is exactly what i plan of if go that route.

BUT,  and your response will be greatly appreciated, is spoozing the two pieces together for the bisque, and then a simple glaze more apt to work vs glazing as glue, which you say is very fragile....

As it won't be moved around much the fragility factor is maybe non issue.

Bleh, stuck here.

[Rae Reich]

Yes! Do the spooze!

good luck 

[Kelly in AK]

I’m slow on the reply, sorry. Everything @Rae Reich said, just adding another affirmation. 

A greenware fix is preferable if you can pull it off. In addition to vinegar, people have had success with adding some paper fiber (toilet paper) to the slip for attaching bone dry bits together. Definitely should try the greenware fix first. 

If it’s not resolved after bisque then glaze will do it in this case, because of the way the piece rests. You’ve got it. Get both parts wet so when you push them together glaze is intimately in between them. Ideally you do this right before YOU load it in the kiln, then it doesn’t get moved about once the fix is made. That’s really the critical bit. It’s not ideal, and assumes you can be the one responsible for putting it in the kiln, but I’ve done it successfully many times with student work and my own. As long as gravity is in your favor, the piece at rest with nothing supporting it will sit like you want it to, glaze will fuse the parts together.

I sense you understand glaze has some volume, so just brushing some on each side and sticking them together isn’t the same as fitting the pieces while the glaze is still fluid. I don’t want to make it sound harder than it is, but I don’t want to give the impression there’s nothing to it either. It will work. 

[rel]

Thanks Kelly and Rae

Yes, did everything with care and it came apart today when I was very carefully scraping off the little excess dried spooze sludge. the contact spots were just too minimal. however, I am now left with two wonderful pieces that after sanding off the dried sludge can now be put thru the bisque and then glazed etc in another way.

It was worth all the effort and I am still committed to forging ahead with geometric shapes and balance.

thanks, Maine is a wonderful place to be working with clay....

cheers, Robin