Preparing ceramic sculpture for firing in the kiln Tutorial

To make sculpture permanent you need to remove it from armature, hollow it and fire it in the kiln. The clay has to be firm enough to stand on its own without support but still in workable condition. Do the hollowing when the piece is close to the finish. Here with the cutting wire I cut off top part of the head. Next step is just scooping out the clay from interior of the sculpture. I do it with the round carving tool. I remove the clay around the paper core and then I remove the paper. With the cutting wire I cut under the very bottom of the sculpture to free it from the board. Then I will remove the rest of the paper. Here I am removing clay from the inside of the sculpture. I intend to create the wall with the even thickness. It shouldn't be thicker than one inch. And I constantly keep checking the thickness of the wall. I want to make sure that is even. And if you find area that is much thinner, you scoop out too much clay or it was thinner from the beginning, just take fresh clay and fill it up, build up the thickness of the wall to the desired thickness. So just remember that the clay is shrinking during the drying process. If there is a very thick and very thin area it's very likely that there will be cracks in the sculpture because the thicker area is drying much slower than the thin one and it creates tension what is causing cracks in the clay. Here I'm removing clay from the bottom. You will see the lines indicating the thickness of the wall. When I'm done with hollowing I poke lots of holes inside the sculpture. This helps evacuate steams and gases during firing. It allows the clay to dry faster and also allow the clay to fire more evenly. I poke holes about two-thirds of the way through. You can create holes with needle tools or with the toothpick or the fork. Just be careful don't stab yourself. If you poke the hole all the way through don't worry because you can always erase it. So next step is scoring edges of both sides. I'm using serrated rib tool. You can use toothpick or fork but I just find the serrated tool is much faster, more efficient. Here I'm applying the sudor or slip. Basically it's a clay mixed with the water to the consistency of the cream. It will work as a bonding agent like a glue. Here I reassemble the sculpture and I press the clay firmly across the seams. I pinch seams together pressing the clay from one side to another. You have to do it all the way around. Next step is just filling up this area with fresh clay and re-sculpting, adding the final texture. So when you are finished cover the sculpture with the plastic bag and let it dry for a couple of weeks. It will create even humidity. Clay will dry slowly. It will prevent the outside from drying faster than inside. After the initial drying period remove the plastic and let the sculpture dry completely. Fire your sculpture when it is bone dry. And if you like this tutorial please consider subscribing and hit the notification bell so you will not miss any videos which I will be uploading every week. Thanks for watching!