You will need
- plastic bag, carton or container;
- newspaper or rags;
- - fixing form and backup (if necessary);
- - sandpaper;
- brush;
- - smooth object;
- an oven, radiator or microwave;
- oven or campfire for roasting.
Instruction
1
Do not try as soon as possible to dry the clay, otherwise the remaining water in the pores evaporates, simply break your crafts in the firing process. Clay work can dry two to three days to two weeks or even longer – it depends on the thickness of the product. The moisture needs to evaporate from raw clay and gradually, day by day.
2
Provide the right temperature for drying the clay. Optimal room temperature shaded place away from drafts. If the room will be temperature fluctuation, the clay surface may become cracked, and irreversibly deformed.
3
Place the workpiece in a plastic bag, a metal container or cardboard box and place it on a perfectly flat surface. Down you can lay a sheet of newspaper (to absorb moisture), the top cover with a clean cloth. Clay in polyethylene do not forget to regularly ventilate, so the bag did not accumulate condensation.
4
For small parts you can make a special shape, especially if they want to lock in a certain position. For example, run the corresponding recesses in the piece of foam, use cardboard props.
5
Soak-drying clay under the rag for two days, and then be sure to remove the coating and dosushivanie open the product in the shade.
6
Inspect the clay piece. If the product has become much easier and lighter than it was in raw form, then it evaporated enough water.
7
After pre-drying is recommended to dry the clay also on hot radiators, or in a microwave or oven. The oven door must be slightly open for air access.
8
Gently clean the surface of the dried clay pieces with very fine sandpaper until you remove from the surface all the small bumps and roughness. Appears after treatment of the clay dust swipe with a clean dry brush.
9
To clay glistened, as it should grate (velosite) her smooth object (e.g. a metal spoon). This will make the upper layer of the clay surface is more dense and will have a beautiful Shine. After firing, the glossy, your crafts will Shine even more.
Note
It is important that the clay is burned gradually, evenly – otherwise the product is deformed to warp. Will keep it in the stove for four hours, and in the fire – at least eight. After firing, do not remove the garland from the clay oven for several hours - let it completely cool.
Useful advice
Annealing the dried clay in an urban apartment problematic. Try to do it at their summer cottage in the stove or on the campfire. Put the hack in a tin tin can, breaking into the metal, and overlaid makeshift Kapsel burning firewood. In the oven place the container blank in the side of the hot coals.