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ez porcelain prop what is it good for?

updated wed 28 may 03

 

Linda Knapp on mon 26 may 03


I got my kiln from my sister this weekend Yipeee Skippeeee things are
gonna get hot here!

Along with some very dry clay and a bunch of low fire cones I came away
with a largish box of EZ Porcelain Prop Ceramic Fibre packed in 8oz
bags. My sister was into doll making so I assume she was going to use it
for packing between fingers/ arms and such. I don't do that sort of work
- plan to fire this kiln to ^6 with functional(more or less) pots. My
question is should I keep it and if so what for?

Linda

mercy lang on tue 27 may 03


Linda I use it all the time for my sculptures. Anything that I think will warp I put some on. For me it's great. I pay about 3.50 a bag. Also, it's reusable (a few times before it starts disintegrating). mercy

Linda Knapp wrote:I got my kiln from my sister this weekend Yipeee Skippeeee things are
gonna get hot here!

Along with some very dry clay and a bunch of low fire cones I came away
with a largish box of EZ Porcelain Prop Ceramic Fibre packed in 8oz
bags. My sister was into doll making so I assume she was going to use it
for packing between fingers/ arms and such. I don't do that sort of work
- plan to fire this kiln to ^6 with functional(more or less) pots. My
question is should I keep it and if so what for?

Linda

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Mercy Lang
Visit www.mercylang.com for fine art and sculpture. Jewelry for your Home!

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John Rodgers on tue 27 may 03


This type of material is used to prop slip cast porcelain things so they
do not sag, warp, and twist in the kiln when fired. I owned a
slipcasting porcelain shop for a along time and used a similar material
called Prop-it for all the more complex pieces that were produced. These
materials are most typically used when the material fired is very thin,
and movement is almost inevitable.

A little aside on this - Edward Marshal Boehm - founder of Boehm
Porcelain in Trenton, NJ - was a master at working with this kind of
thing. He once made a series of California Condor's for museums. Made to
scale, each piece had a 45 inch wingspan - and this was in slipcast
porcelain, would you believe. He made enormously complex works, and to
prop things up to eliminate sagging he would cast long tubes of
porcelain, stand them up to supports parts in the kiln, put a little
Prop-it or other fiber between the tube and the part to be supported,
and then fire the whole thing together. As the porcelain in the piece
would shrink in the firing, so would the tubes, and the fiber prevented
contact between the tubes and the work, and the fiber allowed for some
movement of the various components, and had enough give so as not to
cause cracking yet would provide sufficient support. It's a real trick
to get just the right balance there.

Back to your work. Were you to do some works with really fine
components, like clay filigree or something, especially in porcelain,
the fiber would come in handy.

Care to sell some of it?? I would be interested as I still do some
porcelain slip casting work.

John Rodgers
Birmingham, AL

Linda Knapp wrote:

> I got my kiln from my sister this weekend Yipeee Skippeeee things are
> gonna get hot here!
>
> Along with some very dry clay and a bunch of low fire cones I came away
> with a largish box of EZ Porcelain Prop Ceramic Fibre packed in 8oz
> bags. My sister was into doll making so I assume she was going to use it
> for packing between fingers/ arms and such. I don't do that sort of work
> - plan to fire this kiln to ^6 with functional(more or less) pots. My
> question is should I keep it and if so what for?
>
> Linda
>
> ______________________________________________________________________________
>
> Send postings to clayart@lsv.ceramics.org
>
> You may look at the archives for the list or change your subscription
> settings from http://www.ceramics.org/clayart/
>
> Moderator of the list is Mel Jacobson who may be reached at
> melpots@pclink.com.
>