600-gram Piece Fired
This is the 600-gram “rock” from my last blog posting, waiting to be carved.
This piece actually did fit in my 6.5″ x 6.5″ x 4.5″ small kiln. I just mixed 1550 grams of copper, which will probably fit in an 8″ x 8″ x 6″.
The scale shows the weight of the powder plus the water. I am not yet ready to make another piece, since there are so many things I learned from this experience and need to experiment some more.
I was asked why I had made such a piece. The answer is that metal clay creations don’t necessarily have to be functional. Sometimes you want to do it for art’s sake. But mainly I was trying to explore the limits of this medium. I wanted to see what it could do and what it couldn’t. Obviously it’s a new sculptural medium – different from the familiar ones, like ceramic sculpting and stone carving – that needs more research and experimentation.