in my ceramics class we‘re making pinch pots and since we have to make it into an animal of some kind, i‘m turning mine into an octopus. the tentacles are giving me trouble though. every time the clay starts to dry the spots where the tentacles meet the bowl get really cracked and fragile and keep breaking off. i‘ve tried reattaching them and adding more clay for reinforcement, but i‘m afraid they‘ll just keep breaking off. any suggestions how to make the tentacles sturdier and less likely to break off? also, what color do you think i should glaze it when i‘m done? and i like naming my creations -- any suggestions?
What is happening is the arms are drying at a different rate (assuming the clay is the same) than the body. A simple fix might be is to wrap the area where the cracking is occurring with wet paper towels. It will slow the drying down a little so they don't separate. The problem now is how dry it is altogether. You might be better off starting anew. The old clay can be reused unless it has been fired. When things crack off it is very hard to reattach them with a quality patch. Sometimes vinegar can be used instead of water to reattach parts. It sometimes improves your chance of success.
Talk to your teacher about this option Pulp some toilet paper with water with a blender A stick blender works well Squeeze out the excess water Mix this with the ceramic clay 4 parts clay to 1 part pulp You could break the current piece and crush in a plastic bag - a rolling pin helps You do not want to breath the dust Add the paper pulp mixing in the plastic bag - use this to remake the piece Ceramic paper clay is great for hand building and it has higher green strength Warning the fired piece is more porous than regular clay If you glaze it there should be no problem This mixture goes moldy if kept wet in about a week I like shades of green and purple for the glaze Since it is an octopus maybe a name starting with o like Oliver_ _________________________________ A more traditional method is to rough the surfaces of both pieces to be joined with a needle tool Apply a slip made using the current clay and water. The slip acts like a glue Press both pieces together Smooth out the joint. If the clay is too dry you may need to lightly spray with water - wait 10 minutes and spray again Dry slowly by lightly wraping the piece in plastic wrap Slow drying reduces cracks
A hollow of fantastically much any length could be sucessfully drilled into glass, ceramic tile, ceramic pots or maybe into the area of a tumbler bottle utilising this equipment. Get some straightforward glazing putty. Then build a dam around the area the place you prefer to drill the hollow into . The dam desires to be some million/4 inch intense. Then take and positioned some motor oil into the dam to that's further a beneficiant volume of abrasive compound. i take advantage of coarse rubbing compound. Then take a bite of metallic tubing and positioned it right into a drill press and start to drill. The abrasive will fall into the cut back and proceed to abrade as you raise and decrease the tubing on an identical time as the drill press is at approximately medium velocity. It takes approximately quarter-hour to bypass with the aid of a sheet of glass and approximately 10 minutes to bypass with the aid of a ceramic pot it relatively is approximately 3/sixteen thick. in case you utilize a cement drill this is going to shatter the glass or the ceramic pot. it is likewise possible to cut back a hollow say 3 inch diameter into ceramic with the aid of taking a tin can and mounting a bolt with the aid of the suited to bypass into the drill press chuck and utilising this comparable approach of the develop of putty dam, oil and abrasive interior the oil. that's an previous approach that became used for centries to drill those 3 inch holes into glass at action picture theatres.
