Tutorial 4: Black and White Enamels to Create a Silhouette
Тәжірибелік нұсқаулар және стиль
Tutorial 4: Black and White Enamels to Create a Cat Silhouette
Enamel: Soft White 100 (O) and Black 101 (O) from Milton Bridge in the UK and 772 Liquid Enamel from Thompson Enamels in the USA (unleaded)
Metal: Copper that is 3x4 inches and 1.2mm thick
Firings: 4
Kiln Temp: 800˚ Celsius (approx. 1450˚ Fahrenheit)
Firing Times: 1.30 mins for initial firings up to 2 mins for the last firing.
Links: www.milton-bridge.co.uk/
thompsonenamel.com/
Key takeaways: The black will have to have at least two layers, possibly three to make sure it is even.
Both the black and white enamels are very opaque so even the smallest amount will show up (white on black or vice versa). So in this case I did a final layer of black using 80 mesh sifters of various sizes in order to avoid sifting any onto the white stencilled area of the cat.
Пікірлер: 8
Very nice
Really useful, thank you.
That is beautiful
Why and when do you decide rice water, and what does it do? Thanks for your great tutorials!
@GeraldineMurphyEnamel
Жыл бұрын
Happy new year and sorry for the late reply. I use rice water - which is basically starch - because it adheres the enamel powder to the copper very well. You might have noticed that when you put on liquid enamel and let it dry, and then try to do sgraffito with a toothpick for example, it can come off in slices/chunks...which you don't want. Using the starchy water to mix your enamel make is adhere much better and is then far easier to do the sgraffito technique. Also, when you are doing this technique obviously you need to have the liquid enamel dry first before scratching through it. My recommendation is not to have it bone dry - let's say you left it sitting on top of the kiln for an hour or so - it would be baked on. It chips more easily when it is that dry. So dry it but try to find the perfect dryness...not 100% but very close...
Do you mount your tiles in a frame? I always struggle to find the best way to do this.
Do you use klyrfire before sifting?
@GeraldineMurphyEnamel
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Hi Ken, I only use Klyrfire for 3D pieces or things like bowls where otherwise the enamel would slide down with gravity. The other occasion where I use Klyrfire is if I am trying to fire the front and back of the piece at the same time: I use the very same enamel, sand the back, paint or preferably spray on the Klyrfire, sift on my enamel, wait until it is dry-ish, then turn it over and don't bother with Klyrfire, sift on your enamel to the front. Then you transfer your piece to your trivet and fire (when the Klyrfire is dry on the back). When you do this, 1. don't put on too much KFire because it will drip off along with the enamel and 2. don't put heaps of enamel on to the back because again, with gravity it will drop or drip off in the kiln and get all over the floor of the kiln.