Got gold for glass, how do I use it??

[Veebee]

Like it says in the title 

I have Held of Harrogates 10% 'Gold for Glass', plus the lustre thinners. But they have no instructions, and I can't seem to find any on the net.
Soooooo, I anneal my chosen bead, then.............? (I use mostly 104 coe glass)

Also, should I add thinners to the gold before I even think about using it? If so, at what ratio?

Thank you in advance 

[hollergrafik]

send Rachel Elliot a message, she was talking to me about this stuff so she knows how to use it.

[Veebee]

Hi Kay! **Waves**
Thanks, I will 

[Flyingcheesetoastie]

Got the message and I thought I'd repost my reply on here just in case anyone else needs it, I see Becky was doing some lustre work in the Show and Tell, I beleve!

What I would suggest doing is a few tests to see what works best for you.  I've never actually tried it on beads, just on flat glass but it's the same principle.  Firstly choose something to paint and use am appropriotely sized brush, this stuff is expensive and a little goes a long way, but you don't want to waste is by letting it go up inside the bristle holder of the brush or end up washing loads out.  As you paint it on you'll see it goes on as a transparent brown liquid that will go tacky quite quickly depending on how thick you apply, experiment with this, thick layers thin layers etc, also something I've not tried but see what it does on an etched bead surface and a shiny one!  This is all done cold by the way!
I'd also leave beads on mandrels too so you can rest them inside the kiln without them touching anything else during the firing.  I've never really thinned the lustre itself, just used the thinners to clean brushes and always make sure you have designated lustre brushes as they can be contaminated very easily.  If you do think that thinned lustre will produce a better result for you, always mix the lustre and thinner out of the bottle as you don't want to add too much and ruin your gold bottle.  The notes I have had me firing the glass gold at around 590 to get it to bloom but that was without a soak, so I would try sticking your test into a standard batch anneal with the 90minute soak and see what happens.  Then work from there, see what results you got on the thick and thin application, if something didn't bloom then maybe try upping the temperature and dropping the soak time.  It's tricky as you don't want the bead to misform or slump but you need to get as high as you can really.  Once the lustre is fired on it's very durable and once it's struck to the bright gold, it should be a bright shiny gold, so to speak.  I've also found I can re-fire it with more enamel or lustre on top and have taken it up to about 750 without loosing the shine.

Anyway, I hope that's enough waffle for you to be going on with, feel free to email me any images and firing scheduales or post them here if you need feedback with it.  And don't forget to enjoy it!

Rachel x

[Veebee]

That's fabulous, thank you Rachel!

I feel a new S&T thread coming on 

[Flyingcheesetoastie]

Oh yeah totally!  I have some very special Halo Lustre that I've yet to try even after scrounging it from Ferro in Germany!

[turnedlight]

May I ressurect this thread? I bought some gold lustre to try as highlights on my beads like they highlight designs on pottery, I painted it on a bead and put it in the flame, (carefully!) it developed a lovely gold shine so I put it in the kiln.
It still looks good after it came out but is easy to scratch off, so I take it the heating time wasn't long enough. I'm planning to do the next ones in the kiln as I read something about the colour 'developing' so maybe although the torch is heaps hot enough it's just too fast - anyone know anything about this?

[turnedlight]

Ah right, well I did pop it in the kiln and anneal afterwards, but maybe heating it in the flame was not the best plan! Still, one has to play..

[Flyingcheesetoastie]

I suspect you fried the gold as whenever I've fired the lustre in the kiln Ive never gone about 700c with it and it's never scratched off.  Even ceramic firings wouldn't go to the temperatures reached in a direct flame and the glass gold lustre I've used will quite happily turn gold at temperatures low enough so as not to distort the beads.