Ceramic Fireplace Part 2 (attaching slabs)

In this short video, I'm going to teach you how to secure your base and wall to your facade for your ceramic fireplace. First, you should finish your facade making sure that you include at least three architectural elements and bas-relief. That means you need parts of your facade to rise up from the surface. You should also include architectural elements and bas-relief throughout the rest of your fireplace as well. So that means on the base and on the walls. Let's take a closer look at this student example. We see columns, bricks, that twist, and snakes, and circular stones rising from the surface. Now moving on with my project. So I already cut out the base and the wall and I put them into my bag with layers of wet paper towel between them. So to begin to put my pieces together, I'm going to start by adding some slip since I feel like my slabs are getting a little bit dried out. I like to slip, score, and then slip some more. Slip, score, slip some more is a great method to use when attaching pieces of clay that are already starting to get a little bit dry. I'm slipping, scoring, and slipping some more at both attachment points. Then I'll put the pieces together. I'm placing my wall down so it's right up against the edge of the base. I'm pressing it together to make it suction. Now I'm going to use a wooden modeling tool to help blend the seam together. I'm using the smooth end of the modeling tool and I'm making lines to actually carry the clay from one side from the base into the wall, or from the wall into the base. This starts looking a little bit messy at first, but then I'm going to use a metal rib as well as my finger to smooth out the seam. And when you're done blending the seam together, you shouldn't see any trace that it was previously two pieces of clay. You want it to look like one solid piece. Next, on the inside, I'm going to blend the seam together there and then you're going to see I'm going to add an extra coil of clay to help make it even more sturdy. So I'm rolling out some clay into a coil and then I'm going to put that coil along the seam on the inside. Then after it's placed, I'm going to take my wooden modeling tool and I'm going to blend it together some more. This really helps to secure the wall to the base. Once again, when you're finished blending with your wooden modeling tool, you should see no seam at all. It should look like it's one solid piece of clay. Now when you have your base and wall connected, it's a really great time to decorate the inside wall. So if you want to add texture or if you're going to add ball relief, now would be a great time to do it. So I'm just showing you how you could use the loop or ribbon tool to carve in texture. Now you are also at a great point to carve your name into the base of your fireplace. So carefully turn your fireplace over, carve your name and also your block number into the base using a needle tool and then you can place it back on your foam core board. Whenever you're ready to attach the facade, you're going to slip score and slip some more again at the attachment point. So you're going to do this again on both the base and wall and where the facade is attaching. Slip score, slip some more, push it together so that it suctions and sticks and then you're going to blend using your wooden modeling tool. As you're watching me do this, I want you to keep in mind that you can clean up your fireplace after you've attached pieces together. So at this point, I'm not thinking that everything looks perfect and finished. I know that as my clay starts to firm up a bit and becomes more leather hard, it's going to be easier for me to clean it up, smooth it out and just you know make those imperfections go away. Now at the attachment point on the inside right there where my facade is meeting with the wall, I'm going to include another coil of clay. This is just going to help secure it some more just like I did on the inside where the base connected to the wall. Once I roll out my two coils of clay, I'll place them in that crack where the corner is and then again I'll use my wooden and ready to clean up, I'm going to recommend that you spray lightly a paper towel with water and just drape it over your fireplace. This is just a good method for keeping your clay soft and moist while you're working with it. Once you're finished adding pieces of clay onto your fireplace, then you can start letting it slowly dry out.