Trouble getting Pastel colours (tints)

[Obim]

Hi peeps,

another request for help from Obim I've been happily diving into my fusing experimants and loving every minute. My use of pottery glazes have as of yet not produced any positive results as of yet - work in progress!!  In one "project" I am working on,  I would like to produce some very light shades using my enamels and my airbrush (thank you for peeps responce for advice on which type to purchase).  I can produce these in opalescent but I am having real problem producing lighter shades of transparent in a full fuse. Either they come out very dark no matter how much I airbrush on, or, some of the colours seem to "burn out" completley at the higher temperature I need for the slumping work, in whuch I want the "tints" incorporated. Any tips much appreciated.

ps while I'm at it any advice on the best "carrying" medium to mix my powdered enamel for use with my airbrush

[Zeldazog]

I don't know how well it would work with an air brush, but one of the mediums we used at college was gum arabic.

What sort of enamels are you using, and what temperature do they normally fire at/what temperature are you slumping at?

[Mary]

One bead artist (sorry, her name escapes me at the mo) uses clove oil. Bronwen Heilman! That's her!

[dinah46]

I think lavender oil is another but I've only used gum arabic.  Never tried enamels in that way in fusing though, I've only done the sort of church window style painting

[Obim]

Thanks for the tip on using gum arabic that seems to work great as a medium.

I am using enamels which I bought from pearsons and typical for me went steaming ahead trying to do too much at once!

The transparent enamels should be fired at round the 580 mark while my slumping I do a 870C. Hence several are just burning off!

Can anyone therefore suggest some transparent enamels that will withstand the temperatures I need for slumping and more importantly how to get tints rather than solid colour?

[dinah46]

You need thompsons enamels, you could try tuffnells

[Zeldazog]

Warm Glass have just started stocking Heraeus enamels which fire between 750 and 950 I think, but I don't know if there's a transparent range or not.

I think Creative Glass Shop or Creative Glass Guild also do the Thomson range that Dinah suggests if Tuffnell's haven't got them.

580 C is more like a fire on glass paint than an enamel.  That said, you slump at very high temperatures, what glass are you using?

(I don't even full fuse float glass at that high a temperature!)


Is it possible to use a tinted frit or glass?

[dinah46]

That said, you slump at very high temperatures, what glass are you using?

(I don't even full fuse float glass at that high a temperature!)

Just what I was thinking   Even allowing for differences in kilns, glass etc that's very high.  I'm surprised you're not getting frazzled edges.