MadDog Mike's Platterful of Pupule - 6 ft Concrete Moai Done! - Other Crafts

V VanTiki Member Hawaii Joined: Nov 25, 2005 Posts: 1046	V VanTiki Posted posted on Tue, Jan 13, 2009 1:15 PM On 2009-01-13 12:24, MadDogMike wrote: Then I thought, why not cut the pieces to shape out of a slab of clay then fire and glaze them? But how would you fit that jigsaw puzzle back together again, you can’t number all the pieces. You are on a ceramic roll! I've been wanting to give this a try for a long time. Read about it in one of my clay tile books. The folks in the book do actually number the pieces - once the clay is leather hard they pick up the pieces and scratch a number into the back of the tile. The cool thing is you draw out your design on a slab, use a needle tool to cut out your pattern, and the shrinking of the clay is what gives you your grout spacing! Too cool. You should try both methods and give us a report! The kiln plugs are AWESOME. What a great idea! Henrik Edit - Wanted to add (after pondering the "Faux-Zaic" that you may be entering a world of pain making a large flat piece in clay that has a bunch of lines scribed in it. In my experience flat surfaces have a very hard time dealing with the stresses of firing, and warping/cracking is a big issue. I'm thinking you may get cracks along your faux grout spaces. My dad did a spectacular 16" octagonal tile with a breadfruit leaf relief pattern on it. He knew he was pushing the limits of scale for one-piece tiles, but hey, that's the way he rolls! :) Things looked great till the last stage of cooling. We were ooo-ing and aah-ing over the tile when we heard an ominous "ping!". Went to lift the tile out of the kiln, and were sad to see it had cracked in half! [ Edited by: VanTiki 2009-01-13 13:21 ]

On 2009-01-13 12:24, MadDogMike wrote:
Then I thought, why not cut the pieces to shape out of a slab of clay then fire and glaze them? But how would you fit that jigsaw puzzle back together again, you can’t number all the pieces.

You are on a ceramic roll! I've been wanting to give this a try for a long time. Read about it in one of my clay tile books. The folks in the book do actually number the pieces - once the clay is leather hard they pick up the pieces and scratch a number into the back of the tile. The cool thing is you draw out your design on a slab, use a needle tool to cut out your pattern, and the shrinking of the clay is what gives you your grout spacing! Too cool. You should try both methods and give us a report!

The kiln plugs are AWESOME. What a great idea!

Henrik

Edit - Wanted to add (after pondering the "Faux-Zaic" that you may be entering a world of pain making a large flat piece in clay that has a bunch of lines scribed in it. In my experience flat surfaces have a very hard time dealing with the stresses of firing, and warping/cracking is a big issue. I'm thinking you may get cracks along your faux grout spaces. My dad did a spectacular 16" octagonal tile with a breadfruit leaf relief pattern on it. He knew he was pushing the limits of scale for one-piece tiles, but hey, that's the way he rolls! :) Things looked great till the last stage of cooling. We were ooo-ing and aah-ing over the tile when we heard an ominous "ping!". Went to lift the tile out of the kiln, and were sad to see it had cracked in half!

[ Edited by: VanTiki 2009-01-13 13:21 ]

Post #428535 by VanTiki on Tue, Jan 13, 2009 1:15 PM