Creating Ceramic Bisque
Author: Trevor Kassulke
The first step in creating your ceramic bisque is to start with
nature's own clay. Like a great sculptor needs his wood, stone
or ice, the ceramic bisque creator will need clay. Mix your clay
with some water and what you are left with is called slip.

The next vital piece of your ceramic bisque puzzle is a plaster
mould. The purpose of the mould is to leech away all the
unnecessary water. Your slip goes into the mould and, as the
water is removed the clay will cling to the walls of your mould.
This water is then drained off and what you are left with is a
shell, which is still very wet, very fragile.

Ceramic bisque cannot, of course, be wet. Your clay is left in
the mould and allowed to dry. As it dries it hardens, once the
moisture has been pulled out of the clay you will be free to
release it from the mould.

It is always a wonderful experience when the mould is cracked
revealing your future piece of ceramic bisque. To the untrained
eye it may look like a hollow clay shell but in your
visualization you are already seeing your wonderful completed
piece of ceramic bisque.

Please keep in mind that by virtue of the fact that your ceramic
bisque is coming out of a mould means that there will be seams.
These seam lines will need to be removed along with any other
imperfections your ceramic bisque may have.

To clean the casting use a cleaning tool and remove the mold
seams from the piece. Be careful not to gouge. Then, if the
piece is plain, without detail, wipe down gently with a damp
sponge to remove scratches and smooth out. If the greenware is
detailed, try not to remove it while cleaning. Using a sponge on
a detailed area could very well remove the detail, so avoid
sponging detail. Use the cleaning tool (finger nail) to put the
detail back if removed

The last station on your ceramic bisque creation train is
firing. Your ceramic bisque piece will remain in the oven for up
to 6 hours at temperatures in excess of 1800º F. This will
remove all the remaining moisture and harden your ceramic bisque.

Most decorative ceramic bisque may be fired to an 04/05 cone
setting. This is for use with a glaze finish that will not be
used for food items. In general the glazes are fired to a cone
06 firing, but you must read the label on the glaze that you use
for the proper firing instructions. There are some specialty
glazes that require a different cone firing.

All bisque used for food applications must be glazed with a food
safe glaze.

If you are finishing a bisque item that you are not going to
glaze, the bisque can be fired to an 05/06 cone firing. Non
fired colors such as acrylic stains, chalks and non firing
translucents are applied to the bisque and a spray sealer or
brush on sealer may be applied to protect the finish.

When removed from the kiln your ceramic bisque is a completed
product. All that remains is to finish it in the paint finish
that you have chosen. This in itself is an exciting finale to
your "masterpiece".



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Ceramic Bisque
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