How to Make Porcelain Cameos
- 1). Lay the firing board on your work surface. You will work directly on it.
- 2). Wet your hands. Grab a hunk of clay and slap it down onto the firing board. Knead the clay for a full minute to work out any bubbles. To do this, press forward into the clay using the bottoms of your palms. Fold the clay in half and repeat. Vary the directions in which you do this.
- 3). Roll the clay out with a rolling pin until it is 1/8 inch deep. Sprinkle the clay, roller, and hands with water if the clay becomes too dry. Press the mold into the clay and cut around it. Leave the mold on top of the clay and remove the excess, bagging it up in a plastic bag for later use.
- 4). Let the piece harden to leatherware. Leatherware is a stage during the drying process when the clay is slightly firm, but may also be easily carved. Clay in this stage feels hard, cold, and slightly clammy. To make sure the cameo hardens to leatherware and no further, place the board and clay in a plastic bag along with damp paper towels. Twist the bag shut and let it sit for a day.
- 5). Unwrap the mold and clay. Pry the mold off of the clay to reveal your cameo. Allow it to harden until it is bone dry. This can take a week or two, depending on how big your cameo is. Fully dry clay makes a faint, glass-like sound when you tap it with your fingernail. Clay also shrinks as it dries, so your cameo will be 5 to 15% smaller than it was before, depending on the quality of your porcelain.
- 6). Stick your cameo in the kiln and fire it for the time and temperature suggested to you by the packaging on your clay. Typically this is between 1300 and 1400 degrees F, but it depends on the brand and grade of porcelain. Remove your piece and allow it to cool on a rack until it is room temperature.
- 7). Select two colors of glaze and paint the relief in one color and the background in another. Be sure you look at test-fired pieces that use those glazes and not the color of the liquid glazes themselves. Glazes almost always turn out to be a completely different color when they are fired when compared to their unfired color. They also vary depending on how high the temperature is in the kiln. Porcelain is a high fire clay, so choose glazes meant for this.
- 8). Stick your cameo back in the kiln for the final firing, again at a time and temperature specific to your porcelain packaging.
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