Err... Frost could I speak to you over here for a minute?
Anyways, you cant bake clay in the oven
You can bake polymer clay in your own oven, at home. Problem?: cost, and durability Polymer clay is about $20/lb. and it's still pretty fragile after hardened. Lay it up with some reinforcement though, and yes it would work.
for it to keep shape, you;d need for it to be attached to the armor piece at all times, thus, the armor would melt
You seem to be describing a method of laying clay overtop of armor premade armor to make a suit.. which is the wrong method for making the armor in clay for alot of reasons. In theory you could make armor from water based clay by slipcasting it in plaster molds. You would make a clay positive, make a plaster mold, remove the original, and pour in liquid clay inside the mold. The plaster pulls the water out of the clay, leaving a hollow coating inside the mold. After a few minutes pour out the rest of the liquid clay, and bammo, you got a hollow clay casting, perfectly uniform in thickness, up to 3/8" thick.
And no, clay does not need to to supported while firing, if it can stand on it's own before firing, it can stand up the the kiln.
but the cost of clay to make an entire suit would cost 100-200 dollars
I don't think thats accurate. A handbuilt clay suit would just cost enough for the materials.. which might be around $200, not including the cost of clay used for making your original sculpt (that clay cannot be reused and fired, it's waste clay) So if you sculpted it in oil based clay... then used water based clay to slipcast it, starting cost for materials would probably be closer to $500. And then theres, paint, padding, a visor or two..
and then you'd have a hard piece of clay which isnt wearable
Again, I'm not sure I agree. Clay is lightweight when cast hollow, I'd say maybe a little heavier than fiberglass... maybe by half. So you'd have a double weight suit... I think that'd work... The question is durability... which could be iffy. Clay can be very strong, dependant of the type of mix that is used. I've seen ceramic bone replacements, ceramic shovels, and bullet proof ceramic plates where specialized clays were stronger than steel. The college I went to developed alot of these clays for use in industry..
I'm pretty sure that if you went with a very strong clay type, or normal clay at higher thicknesses it'd be perfectly wearable.
Please understand the difference between knowing the answer to someones question, and answering it to the best of your ability. If you aren't sure, don't post this advice to others..
Theres alot that you can do to make any method work, if you are convinced of the materials.. People are even making armor out of hot glue.. never say never.
