Jewelry-Making Techniques

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Cork Clay

6907
Cork clay is easily shaped and refined into a solid core for firing hollow metal clay beads and sculptural pieces. Learn the benefits and how to use it with this tutorial.

: : : Materials : : :

  • Drill
  • Sand paper, fine
  • Paragon kiln

Shape and Dry

STEP 1
Make your shapes for beads or sculpture and completely dry the cork overnight or at 200°F in a toaster oven for a few hours. Slow drying is the best. If the cork is moist and you fire it inside an Art Clay piece, the heat of the firing may turn the moisture into steam. The escaping steam may develop enough pressure to damage the Art Clay.
STEP 2
After drying, the cork may be filed, drilled, sanded and otherwise finished to enhance and promote the finishing process.

Fire

STEP 3
Art Clay that is fired with cork clay must be fired at a lower temperature, 1472° for 30 minutes. This is especially important if a significant amount of cork clay is used in the mold. At higher firing temperatures, the burning cork may cause the air in the kiln to superheat, raising the internal temperature near or to the silver's melting point. This may result in damaged or distorted pieces.

Hints:

Keep all unused portions of the cork clay tightly wrapped. If it dries, it cannot be remoistened.

Store at room temperature. If you see dark spots develop (mildew), this will not affect the use of the clay. These spots will burn off in the firing.

Do not add water to the cork clay. If you have two pieces of cork clay to join together, you can moisten the pieces in the area where they will join. Usually pressure and the moisture in the cork clay is sufficient to join the cork clay pieces.

Cork clay makes smoke as it burns. Please fire in a well ventilated room. If you see smoke escaping from the kiln, this is normal. DO NOT OPEN THE KILN DOOR! This will provide oxygen to the fire and possibly cause a flash fire, endangering anyone standing in front of the kiln.

There will be a small amount of green ash residue in your piece. This easily can be removed with running water after the piece is cool.

Have fun! As an internal sculptural structure, this medium saves you hours of time in making hollow forms.

Have a question regarding this project? Email Customer Service.

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