Wet Clay Armatures

[Jibbly]

Well...I know I haven't posted much, but, I figured I may as well start now...I've got a couple questions for the clay folks.

I recently aquired 25 pounds of Amaco Versa Clay No. 20 from my art teacher, not for free, mind you, but...at a real cheap price.

Anyway, Almost all of the clay modeling I've seen is done with Sculpey or Super Sculpey or something. Which brings me to my problems...or..questions..or..whatever. What would one do to create an armature for an...wet clay...that is to be fired? Is it possible to create any type of armature at all?

Well...I look forward to an answer, and...hopefully will be able to do some work with this clay soon.

-Jibbly

[skinns]

I'm not sure if Oil based clay is to be fired, I beleive it is used to make castings out of. But I may be wrong.

[Elwell]

Oil based clay can't be fired. It would melt. What you have isn't oil based, though, it's a wet clay. Wet clay pieces that are meant to be fired can't be built on armatures. They would explode.

[Newbie]

You can make it on an armature and then cast it though

[Jibbly]

Ah...so I have wet clay....that works....I think..

So..yeah, I am planning on firing this in the school kiln...guess I'll have to work..armature-less...

Thanks a lot!

[nafa]

Armatures can be used in fired sculptures if they are made of combustible materials or taken out before firing. See the following excerpt:

"The key to making armatures and interior supports for pottery figures, etc, is accounting for the shrinkage of the clay during hardening. For small pieces, a method I've used is to build a "skeleton" in heavy aluminum wire, then wrapping newspaper around the wire somewhat loosely, so the clay can contract without cracking. When the figure is set to leather-hard, cut the piece longitudinally to remove the armature, then score and use slip to rejoin the pieces. Alternatively, one can build the skeleton out of a light wood like pine (don't use anything that makes toxic fumes when burned) and leave it in through the firing process, when it burns out. These supports may also be removed before firing if this is practical. For larger pieces, it is best to work in sections, because having further to shrink, the piece will tear itself apart trying to contract against an unyielding internal structure."

Link to full article:

http://users.lmi.net/~drewid/clay_faq.html