Air bubbles in Art Clay

[sparkleprints]

Hi

Can anyone help, I am getting lots of air bubbles in my art clay some of which arent visible to the eye and only appear when i fire the item, often ruining it!

What am I doing wrong? if I am re-rolling the clay I try to squeeze it as much as possible to get bubbles out but seems to make it worse?!

[medusa]

heh, you need to tread art clay like real clay and not knead it. a ceramicist friend told me the way to do it is imagine you are making bread and do the opposite. with such small quantities, the best thing, I think, is to handle it as little as possible. plan out what you want to do and try to get it right first time because each time you you start over you get air into it.

I'm sure more experienced silver clay users will advise better though :)

[sparkleprints]

so if I have rolled it and made a mistake, what would you then do? fold over and roll again, or roll it into a ball and roll out?

[Kwant]

I find it very unforgiving if indeed you do make a mistake and dries out to the point of being unworkable, so I tend to do as Medusa says plan it out try to get it right first time failing that it is back in the bag to be reconditioned with a little moisture and starting all over, which is a pain as it takes time for the clay to absorb that extra moisture properly and has to be kneaded again, which I do in a wrap of cling film so it is not losing more moisture to the heat of my fingers.

[medusa]

so if I have rolled it and made a mistake, what would you then do? fold over and roll again, or roll it into a ball and roll out?

if it has enough moisture to take a re-roll, I make sure it's rolled flat and then cut it and stack it and then press it. I found that folding it is a really good way to get air bubbles.

that's a good idea of kwant's to use cling film as well.

as a side note, I store mine in it's sealed bag submerged in a jar of water which stops even the tiniest bit of drying out.