{"id":3723,"date":"2011-04-02T09:35:59","date_gmt":"2011-04-02T17:35:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/artinsilver.com\/blog\/?p=3723"},"modified":"2023-02-22T14:36:30","modified_gmt":"2023-02-22T22:36:30","slug":"copper-and-silver-mokume-gane-from-metal-clay","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/artinsilver.com\/blog\/2011\/04\/02\/copper-and-silver-mokume-gane-from-metal-clay\/","title":{"rendered":"Copper and Silver Mokume-gane from Metal Clay"},"content":{"rendered":"

I didn’t think it was possible to make mokume-gane with a combination of copper and silver clay. I knew that the two metals won’t stick to each other, and if they do, they will alloy into a messy blob. I did try to make a gradient surface with copper and silver and ended up with sad results. But then someone asked me “Have you tried?”, and since then I couldn’t get the idea out of my head.<\/p>\n

What if, I speculated, I fire at such a temperature where the two metals start to bond but not alloy yet? If this works, then it’s all about finding the correct temperature. (Whenever I ask my husband for his opinion on issues like this, he says: “firing schedule.”) The piece featured in this posting is my first attempt, no loss of silver whatsoever. Here is what I did:<\/p>\n

I made the piece (see more information below).<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

I used a front-loader muffle kiln with a fiber blanket box. I fired the first phase on top of carbon: full speed to 1100\u00b0F\/538\u00b0C, holding 10 minutes. To be safe, I fired inside<\/em> carbon for 30 minutes. This is how it looked after the fires phase:<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

If I had made this piece with White Bronze (which I have done in the past), the White Bronze part would look almost as dark as the copper. You can see how white the silver areas are.<\/p>\n

Then I started the second phase at the low temperature of 1200\u00b0F\/650\u00b0C. Fired for 2 hours in carbon. I did not try to break the piece! Since the backing layer is copper, which is hard to sinter at this temperature, I sanded the back of it with 220-grit sandpaper. I saw some powdery areas.<\/p>\n

I raised the temperature 20 degrees at a time. Each time I fired about 1:30 hours. The piece was fully sintered at 1320\u00b0F\/716\u00b0C.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span>.<\/p>\n

The mokume-gane part is treated with Baldwin’s Patina.<\/p>\n

The question is: did the piece sinter because it was fired at the correct temperature, or because it was fired so many times? <\/p>\n

When I fire mokume-gane with copper and White Bronze, I repeat the second phase of firing, to compensate for the low temperature. Surprisingly, in my front-loader, I fire White Bronze at exactly this temperature (1320\u00b0F\/716\u00b0C). I am going to assume that what made it work is both temperature and repetition, so in my next attempt, I am going to use exactly the firing schedule that I use for copper and White Bronze (all firing schedules can be found in my instruction manual<\/a>).<\/p>\n

As for constructing this piece: regretfully, I cannot give instructions here for making this mokume-gane design and others because this is what I currently teach in my travel-teaching workshops, and it would be unfair to the people who pay to take these workshops. As far as I know, there are still a few spots available is my workshops in Dallas (with PMC Connection), TX; Brighton, MI and Saint Joseph, MI; and Rochester, NY (for details see my travel teaching schedule<\/a>). There is also room in my Intensive classes at my studio. The rest of the workshops seem to be full. <\/p>\n

Or, you can wait for my upcoming book, which includes more than 50 projects for different mokume-gane designs and techniques.<\/p>\n

My thanks to Mary Ellin D\u2019Agostino for her tips and suggestions.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I didn’t think it was possible to make mokume-gane with a combination of copper and silver clay. I knew that the two metals won’t stick to each other, and if they do, they will alloy into a messy blob. I did try to make a gradient surface with copper and silver and ended up with […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/artinsilver.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3723"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/artinsilver.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/artinsilver.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/artinsilver.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/artinsilver.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3723"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/artinsilver.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3723\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9185,"href":"http:\/\/artinsilver.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3723\/revisions\/9185"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/artinsilver.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3723"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/artinsilver.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3723"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/artinsilver.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3723"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}