Some things worked and some didn’t.

Bronze clay pieces before going into the kiln: 

Below, the ones that didn’t work. They looked okay except the sides shrank more than the top and bottom. I used the powdered clay for the tops and the Rio Grande clay for the sides. Why was I surprised ?

                                                      On closer inspection, the tops and sides and bottoms did not bond at all. Sides sintered properly, (hard to break apart) but other pieces were brittle. Frustrating, but not yet discouraging. I will not try mixing the two types of clay again.

The little “stone” bead made from the powdered bronze clay worked out as I had hoped it would. So did the flat beads made from the Rio “Bronzclay.” The experiment to fire them with wax wire in place worked out well. The wax melted away when the clay was firing, but the holes stayed open. Most of the beads were fired in an upright position so the wax could drain straight down. But a few were fired laying flat in the charcoal and the wax still drained and burned away.

Everything polished really nicely with a buffing wheel and Fabulustre compound. Even the pieces that I didn’t think fired properly.