Before, during and after

I've been working with copper and bronze metal clays for a couple of months now. I finally bought myself a kiln so I could work with these metal clays. So far the copper has been a dream, but the bronze clays have been giving me a bit of trouble! I've worked with the (slower) BronzeClay and also with the Fast Fire BronzeClay. But really, the fast fire isn't as fast as the directions say! Maybe it's because I live at 7800 feet, or maybe it's because I use a ceramic firing vessel in my kiln, but I've had a hard time getting the firing time right with the fast fire. But I think I'm getting closer! It's such a beautiful product that I'm bound and determined to figure it out.

The other thing that's been weird is the regular bronze clay looks quite different from the first to second package. The color was much darker on the first package of clay, but in the end, everything seemed to fire about the same. I do like the original bronze clay because I haven't had the problems associated with the fast fire, but the fire time (9 hours) is sort of a drag. When I first started using metal clay I only worked with PMC3 and fired it with my torch within just a few minutes. Just spoiled I guess.

Original BronzeClay - but look at the darker pieces! They were from a different package...

My pieces before firing

Here they are out of the kiln (notice 2 of my leaves split)

Here they are after tumbling. Everything came out great except those 2 little leaves that split. I'm not really sure why since I think 3 cards thick should be OK. But I'll have to experiment a little more. I do want some of my aspen leaves to be thin.