Pre-Firing Kiln Disasters!

Both pieces where scheduled to be fired on 17th November, however the large piece broke in two at the centre joining branch between the two main halves of the sculpture due to a mishap whilst it was being loaded into the kiln. This also resulted in some of the smaller disc pieces falling off which I chose to leave off as I was so fed up with the fact that the piece had broken I couldn't face faffing about trying to re-attach them.

Ultimately it was my fault that this had happened, despite me building the piece directly onto a kiln shelf to reduce the amount of handling it would encounter, I hadn't placed enough temporary support props around the piece to support it during the firing and one tiny error during handling  caused a massive break to occur.

I repaired the join by soaking the ends of the join in vinegar and made a vinegar and paper slip from the clay body, I then used this to repair the join. I wasn't convinced it was going to work and I nearly recycled the piece. 

​Below are the images of where the piece broke and the subsequent repair.

Below the pieces in the kiln ready for firing, a further prop was placed under the ball at the front. You can see in the image where I placed wax resist on the rims of the thinner hemispheres to slow down drying. The small clay wedges were providing stability and stopping the piece from making any wobbling movements whilst it was being moved.