Can you bake something made out of plaster of paris in the oven?

I'm just wondering if anyone here has baked a completed object out of plaster of paris in the oven? The reason I'm asking, I have an object made from plaster of paris. I'm making a replica of it, and have covered one side with polymer clay. The polymer clay needs to bake to harden. If I take the clay off the plaster, it's not going to hold the proper shape. Therefore, I want to bake it all together. I'm a little sensitive, as one time I was making crafts in the kitchen and accidently caused an explosion. I've looked on the net, and one source says yes you can, no problem. The other source says no don't do it. So, I'm wondering if anyone has? If I don't get a good response, I'll probably just try it, but was wondering if anyone else has actually done it?


Edit: Well, maybe no one on here knows. I found an article on Instructables, I think I'll go with. They say "...the reason it remains hard is water trapped in the crystal structure. If you heat it past 300'F, the water will be released and the plaster will turn back into a clod of powder..."

so, I'm going to try it at a low temp. Just looking for a fast answer, thanks anyway!

 

Are we talking about grill oven or microwave? reading your post I guess microwave..

If microwave, you gotta be very careful. PoP will contain water which will be super heated within a minute or so.
If you keep it there for long, it may explode and if you cool it down too quickly, it will crack.
My suggestion: Heat it for there for 30 seconds at 40%-50%, then let it cool down for 5 minutes, repeat the cycle till it gets hard enough.

Grill oven will probably crack it if you set a high temp.. Water super heating wont be a problem there, but PoP will crack for sure.. Keep the temp below 100 degrees (C, not F). The trick is to slowly cook the PoP as they do to clay sculptures. keep the temp below water's boiling point and slowly heat it so it doesnt create cracks in PoP.

 

Thanks for your help The Webby! I think I've got it under control. It wasn't the microwave, I'm talking oven. What I did was bake at 240 F, and baked for twice as long. So far, I've made three batches and am happy with the results.

 

wow! its great think that we never know about that.