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Color didn’t just “return” –  it’s bigger and better!  How did it know to create contrasting colors between the flower pedals with a GREEN background?

CAB'z Photos on Flickr

This piece of bronze clay and its impressed flower design have been fired several times.  It was one of the first pieces I fired and  it went through several more attempts to get colored patina.  In between each firing it was sanded and burnished.  This time it came out of the kiln with better than expected results! It made all those other “failures” worth it.

I stared with fresh charcoal – coconut from Rio Grande – out of the same bag I used in the past. The last 2 full firings have been slightly hotter than the first. I ramped up quickly to 1200F, then took an hour  to reach 1500, allowed the temperature to go up to 1550F for a short time, and then kept it at 1500F for 2 hours.

This time I opened the top of the kiln and when the kiln reached 550F; removed the steel box.  After about 20 minutes, I poured the charcoal through a screen and could see the colors immediately.  Quenched the pieces in water.  I had read about the colors disappearing but I worried anyway!  After fishing them out of the water, the pieces went back to the screen and were set in front of a small fan.

It is the first time I have seen pinks.  In the past only one piece had a little red.  This batch had several with brilliant  red and pink.  One other observation: When I opened the lid and looked at the charcoal, two or three specks of bright blue were visible.

This is evolving into a battle of wills.  Today’s bronze came out of the kiln with a strange mix of grey and dull green colors that had unpredictable bright appearances of orange.  Better colors than the first batch, but a step down from  last week’s efforts.  The other

CAB'z Photos on Flickr

two firings had at least some noticeable change of color when the air hit them as they left the hot charcoal.  This time the pieces had little to no change in color as the air hit them.

Impressed Leaf Pendant with Pearl "Node"

That’s not to say the firing was a wasted effort.  This pendant has subtle colors that stand out because of the burnished highlights from the impressed design.  Not a perfect piece, but they are getting better.

Because of the dull grey that settled over many of the pieces, I re-heated the kiln for  several pieces hoping to liven up their colors.  They were already fired, so I let the kiln ramp up quickly to 1550F and held it for a short time; then let it cool to 800F.  Removed the steel box, poured out the charcoal.  Almost no change.  One looked more dull!  On some of the others the burnished bronze looked more red.  That’s all.

Wrong temperature or timing? Is the charcoal worn out from these half-hearted efforts?  Contaminated?  I’ll confess to testing a couple sealants on the underside before deciding to re-fire them.  No way to know so next time: fresh charcoal.

Deep Impressed Design

Leafy Earrings

Time for Plan B: Work with what you have.  Not a bad plan and not bad results.  I was happily surrpised that neither the first nor the second firing made these pairs mismatched.

The burnished shiny surface makes a nice contrast to the impressed designs filled with patina colors.