Advice with copper and bronze clay

[ljewell]

Dear all,
Im a beginner on this site. Advice please about Copper and Bronze clays. I currently work with pmc silver and kiln fire. I have been asked to produce an item in the copper or bronze. Do I need any special equipment to fire these mediums? or can I just use my kiln? Do they need any special finishing processes?? How do you find working in them??
Many thanks
Lucy.

[ljewell]

Thanks for all your support.

[Pedro]

Hi Lucy

I have a pack of copper and bronze clay but as yet have not had a chance to play with them. I dont have a kiln so will torch fire it and hot quench in a pickle.

I've got some Pickclean stuff, it looked oddly familiar to me and a couple of granules on my tounge confirmed it was citric acid the same stuff I de-scale my Nespresso machine with and Notherners put on thier chips ! (Non-Brewed Condiment).

Some of the copper and Bronze clays require activated charcoal, some don't, it's cheap enought to buy a pack or two and have a play. All I will say is keep your silver clay tools, files,burnishers,abrasive pads and polishing sundries seperate from bronze/copper at all times, infact get cheap toolbox from Wilko's and make up a bronze/copper set of finishing tools. This will avoid contaminaion.

I'm guessing the usual pre-fire refining and sanding is the same as silver clay as soon as I've had a go with it I'll let you know.

Regards

Pedro