I'm wondering how much Thompson's enamel (coe 104) I can get away with fusing onto Bullseye (coe 90)....
Can anyone advise? A tiny sprinkle on the surface? More? between layers?
I'm hoping that since the colour is concentrated I can get away with quite tiny amounts.
Thanks!
I'd suggest you do a trial with a small test piece first - in my experience, fusing is a lot less forgiving than lamp-working for playing nicely with mixed COEs.
I recall when I first started fusing, I tried some unlabelled enamel on the surface of a single piece of glass (can't recall if float or Bullseye but it doesn't matter as I didn't know the COE of the enamel either) and a few days after coming out of the kiln, a thin layer of glass pinged off the surface. Maybe it was too thick, or they were too far apart COEs, I don't know, but I'd definitely do a test first.
We bought a set of the Thompson enamels which are meant to be compatible with bullseye and made up a test piece, with fairly thick enamel, 5 out of the 50 have cracked. So I'd be really careful with 104, use only a little and run a test first as Zeldazog suggests.
Thanks, folks! I'll try it with caution and a light hand.
I was just hoping to get a bit more colour and detail into things, and Thompson's 104 is cheap and available in the UK, whereas 90 isn't.
Warm-Glass sell a small range of colours of Sunshine Glass Enamels.
I couldn't see a COE stated, but seeing as Warm Glass are a Bullseye supplier, and they usually test everything in their studio before selling, I'd be guessing that it works okay with B/E
Have you thought about using bullseye powders?
Quote from: flame n fuse on December 23, 2014, 01:10:45 PM
Have you thought about using bullseye powders?
Yes, thanks, I do use powders as well as different sizes of frit. I wanted to try enamels to get more intense areas of colour.
Quote from: Zeldazog on December 22, 2014, 08:28:21 PM
Warm-Glass sell a small range of colours of Sunshine Glass Enamels.
Thanks, yes I looked at those - unfortunately they only have 5 colours in stock, and they are much pricier than the handy £1 tubes of 104.
If I really like the effect on test pieces, I might look into it more - you can get Thompson's 90 in the US, but not all suppliers post to the UK.
Moira, did you see the photo in my post about liquid glass stringer. The red Bullseye powders came out very intensely red so this may be an option for you. The gum seems to allow a greater density of localised powders and the colours are therefore more intense. Glass Studio Supplies in Wickford have a good range of Bullseye powders but I can't see any mention of enamels on their site