Hey dollies: following is the info on firing Cynthia Parker's Shoulder Plate that Di asked me to post.
I called Michelle Mastel, the sculpter of Cynthia Parker, yesterday. First of all to tell her how much I liked her doll and also to ask about firing the shoulder plate.
She was a warm and lovely person and it was a pleasure to talk to her.
The shoulder plate really concerned me, since it is open under the arms, and has the neck molded onto the top. I couldn't figure out how to fire it, since it certainly appears that it wouldn't move when shrinking, if set on the bottom rims, not being connected under the arms, and you couldn't set it upside down, with the neck being there.
She told me to cover three kiln stilts with blanket prop, put one stilt up inside the SP, horizontal gong from shoulder to shoulder, put the other two stilts side by side, vertically, behind each breast. Something like this TT. The top of the T being the horizontal one and the stems of the T's being the vertical ones. The vertical ones should stand in the sand, lifting the SP up off the shelf, therefore allowing it to shrink without dragging in the sand on the shelf. She said to be very careful that all the stilts were covered in the prop so that they did not touch anything else. My stilts were too wide to put up inside the shoulders from side to side, so I just used a couple of inches deep of prop and inserted the two vertical ones up into that prop, lifting the SP up off the shelf. I haven't been able to lift my pieces out of the kiln yet, as they are still too hot, but I had to look inside at them and the SP looks like it is fine with no visible cracking.
So I think it worked!!
I was really nervous!
Hope this helps those of you who haven't fired her yet.
Oh, Michelle said, Yes, the SP would definitely crack if it rested on the shelf.
Good Luck!!! I hope this is of some help to you and you love your Cynthia Parker as much as I do.