How Piggy Banks Are Made

How our personalized piggy banks are made.....

Each piggy bank is made from a plaster mold. A liquid clay, called slip, is poured into the mold, allowed to sit for a few minutes and then poured back out. This leaves a thin shell inside the piggy bank mold. After a few hours the shell has become stiff clay, not brittle and not too soft, and the mold can be opened. The new clay piggy bank can be removed from the mold. It is now called greenware. The greenware piggy bank then needs to dry at least 24 hours. At this point, the piggy bank is simply dried mud.

Flying Pig Piggy Bank

Because the mold is in several pieces, it leaves seam lines on the greenware piggy bank. These need to be cleaned off with a sharp knife (cleaning tool) and rubbed smooth with a wet sponge. Then the piggy bank is ready for eyes and its first firing.

Cleaning greenware piggy
banks is a very dusty job.

Piggy Banks at different stages: from l-r, wet greenware, dry greenware, fired bisque and the finished product : )

Contrary to popular belief, a kiln is not like a microwave oven. It takes a good 4 hours to reach temperatures of 1900 degrees farenheit, and the wire elements inside get red-hot. The outside of the kiln cannot be touched while it is firing, but does not get red-hot. Just too hot to touch. It takes another 10-12 hours for the kiln to cool down enough to unload.

After the first firing, the once greenware piggy bank is now bisque and ready for painting. Depending on the design, it can take several colors and/or several coats of paint (glaze) to complete it. Each coat of glaze must dry completely before the next one is applied to the piggy bank. Drying time depends on the weather....damp, humid and rainy days are terrible for drying. Warm, breezy sunny days are ideal. I like to prop piggy banks by my furnace vents in the winter. This dries them quite nicely. At the very least, each piggy bank gets 3 coats of paint. It is then ready for the second firing.

A painting will we go....

My work area in the basement. The large white blocks are the piggy bank molds.

Back to the kiln for a good 12-16 hours. Each piggy bank is fired twice. This makes each design shiny and permanent.
After the second firing, the piggy bank is ready for personalization. Allowing a few hours for the personalization to dry, the piggy bank is ready to pack up and ship to you.

A better view of the
piggybank molds.

I do this for each and every piggy bank I make. Each one is handcrafted by me, with my molds, in my basement. There are no mass-produced, made overseas piggy banks here. Only high quality, handpainted, made in America (in my basement) piggy banks.