Does anyone bake overnight?

[teh roxxors]

This year, I've taken to baking my Sculpey and Super Sculpey pieces overnight, roughly 8-12 hours, at 180-190°F. I turn the oven off and let them cool a couple hours inside. I'm getting less breakage when my students paint. These pieces seem harder than those baked at higher temps for less time.

Anyone else do this?

[freakinacage]

no but i am tempted to give it a try!

[taurn7]

holy cow, 8-12 hours?! the clay must be like dark brown the next morning! You got any pictures of your pieces? I bake mine in a smoker and it gets to only 200*, and I let it bake for 2-3 hours, never overnight though.

[teh roxxors]

Actually, it's a light milk-chocolate color, with a touch of red.

This is reminding me of how different ceramics feel when fired to cone 06, 05, 04, or 03. The hotter the firing, the harder the ceramic afterward; and, it is something you can actually sense just by handling the pieces.

Again, I'm baking at low temps (180-190°F), but for a longer time than most. It definitely gives the clay a different feel afterward.

[MikeLoh]

Wow Your pieces must be huge? I use a heat gun to bake my smaller pieces mounted on plaster cores. I rotate it on a lazy susan moving the hot air up and down side to side, its more work but in about 10 minutes time the pieces are left to cool near a window with a fan blowing air outside. The advantage is I can control the air to prevent burning in the smaller parts.

[KingUnicorn]

I bake overnight, but mostly for security reasons. I find that late-night/overnight baking reduces the amount of potential "interference" by housemates, spouses, etc.

I typically bake at 220F for 2 hours, cut back to the lowest setting (170-175F) for another 2 hours, and then shut off the oven and let the piece cool as the oven cools, which eliminates even minor breakage (as long as the armature can support the weight of the clay).

The only aspect of your your slower, reduced heat baking sessions that I question is the energy consumption. It seems you could cut back by a couple hours or so and still produce the same results. But that's the tree hugger in me.

~KU