Beginning glazes?

I am dissatisfied with the results I am getting from "Duncan" glazes as
far as blending colors in their underglaze products. I suspect that to get
what I really want, I will have to learn a lot more about glazes. Where
should I start?

Are you glazing or underglazing????

Jill
North Carolina

"J" wrote in message
...
Are you glazing or underglazing????

Right now I am using "Duncan EZ" underglaze on the advice of the woman
who sells it. After that I use a clear glaze.

What I want is to be able to translate my rather skillfull, meticulous,
realistic nature scenes on to clay using what ever will do the job. I
started on ceramics because of my child's art class at a "Paint your own"
ceramics course at a place where they apparently use glazing (IOW, something
that can be used on top of fired clay and can even be used on top of glaze).

But when I went to the other place, (Closer, and has the advantage of
being there all day every day and is willing to fire my pieces), and showed
her what I wanted to be able to do, she was adamant that I needed to use
underglaze on greenware. I have since partly changed to using underglaze on
bisque.

All I need is a way to blend colors, with fine detail, that will not
obscure the detail of my scuplture. Part of the problem may be that my
sculptures are all less than 3 inches in any dimension and I am putting in
detail with a fine needle.

these would be nice pieces if you can pull them off, but i don't know if the
fine detail you're after can be achieved with ceramics. the glazes may "bleed"
around as they melt which might frustrate you from loss of detail.

by accident, when my wife was doing christmas ornaments for fun, i made her
flat cookie cutter forms and bisque fired them. she'd paint them with acrylic
paints. she made a mistake on a few and i told her "no problem, i'll bisque
fire them again and the paint will erase".

they didn't.

the acrylics held up to the near 1700°F bisque fire. they did soften in the
hue though, which actually was kind of nice.

maybe you don't want to use "glazes" at all.

see ya

steve





Subject: Beginning glazes?
From: "Sam"
Date: 3/13/2004 4:03 AM Pacific Standard Time
Message-id:


"J" wrote in message
...
Are you glazing or underglazing????

Right now I am using "Duncan EZ" underglaze on the advice of the woman
who sells it. After that I use a clear glaze.

What I want is to be able to translate my rather skillfull, meticulous,
realistic nature scenes on to clay using what ever will do the job. I
started on ceramics because of my child's art class at a "Paint your own"
ceramics course at a place where they apparently use glazing (IOW, something
that can be used on top of fired clay and can even be used on top of glaze).

But when I went to the other place, (Closer, and has the advantage of
being there all day every day and is willing to fire my pieces), and showed
her what I wanted to be able to do, she was adamant that I needed to use
underglaze on greenware. I have since partly changed to using underglaze on
bisque.

All I need is a way to blend colors, with fine detail, that will not
obscure the detail of my scuplture. Part of the problem may be that my
sculptures are all less than 3 inches in any dimension and I am putting in
detail with a fine needle.









steve graber

EZ Strokes is pigment in a teeny little bit of glaze. It's like painting w/
just the color.
Cover Coat is like colored clay. It's like painting w/ clay.
Concepts is glaze. The colors are pretty much what you see is what you get.
Only problem is you need three strokes to get solid coverage and some of the
colors will still be transparent.

Now then, some of these can be used on greenware and some can be used on
bisque. Some can be used on both. You have to read the labels on each bottle
because it can differ even in the same group.

IF you are using the EZ or the Concepts on bisque you can then Dip the
pieces in clear glaze and fire. You will probably find that painting on the
layer of clear glaze will smear the painting/glazing you've already done.

As a side note.... It's highly unlikely that detail put on w/ a needle will
stay or show, or for that matter that the blending will be successful. It's
not like oil painting or even watercolor. The whole point of a glaze is that
it's glass that melts and creates a solid surface. When the glaze melts in
firing it's possible/likely that your detail will be changed.

However, EZ and Concepts do tend to stay where you put them, more than other
sorts of glazes (like the GL line).

It sounds like more testing is in order and more research.

Good Luck,

Cecilia

----- Original Message -----
From: "Sam"
Newsgroups: rec.crafts.pottery
Sent: Saturday, March 13, 2004 4:03 AM
Subject: Beginning glazes?



"J" wrote in message
...
Are you glazing or underglazing????

Right now I am using "Duncan EZ" underglaze on the advice of the woman
who sells it. After that I use a clear glaze.

What I want is to be able to translate my rather skillfull,
meticulous,
realistic nature scenes on to clay using what ever will do the job. I
started on ceramics because of my child's art class at a "Paint your own"
ceramics course at a place where they apparently use glazing (IOW,
something
that can be used on top of fired clay and can even be used on top of
glaze).

But when I went to the other place, (Closer, and has the advantage of
being there all day every day and is willing to fire my pieces), and
showed
her what I wanted to be able to do, she was adamant that I needed to use
underglaze on greenware. I have since partly changed to using underglaze
on
bisque.

All I need is a way to blend colors, with fine detail, that will not
obscure the detail of my scuplture. Part of the problem may be that my
sculptures are all less than 3 inches in any dimension and I am putting in
detail with a fine needle.

I used to do a lot of painting using Duncan's E-Z strokes. They are very
concentrated, and one generally places a dab of a colour on a glazed tile
(or other surface), and add drops of water until it is more like water
colour paint consistency.

You can blend colours by loading one side of the brush with a different
colour than the other side. You can also "dry brush" colours gently overtop
of a brush stroke.

The general idea is that you try and paint using "one stroke" at a time.
It's wonderful for painting things like flower petals, etc. as the colours
are translucent and lovely effects can be achieved using slighter darker
brushstrokes over top of lighter ones.

There are two reasons it is recommended to paint on greenware rather than
bisque; one is because the bisque will absorb your brushstroke too fast,
often before you have completed it. The other is because you are able to
bisque fire the colours on and then when you apply clear glaze overtop, it
will not run or smudge your colours.

Instead of trying to paint using a "needle", why don't you try removing some
hairs from a very small brush, leaving only a few hairs in the brush? Try a
combination of softer bristles, and firmer bristles and see how it works.

Marianne

On greenware you need to use underglazes then fire and clear glaze and
re-fire.Ordinary underglazes are opaque and need three coats ( the odd
one or two need four coats)for a full cover. The EZ ones are
translucent underglazes and are used for sheer coats and fine line
detail i.e. where you will not want to do three coats as you require a
fine outline or detail.these can be applied in one or two coats for a
more desired denser look but because of the small size of pot and the
cost it is not advisable for a large area. You get good results by
"drawing" with them.They also do an underglaze for bisque that can be
applied as a 1/2/ or 3 coat coverage. this can be fired as is, or
when dry clear glazed and fired.although it is an underglaze for
bisque it also fires to a gloss finish without being glazed. If you
are using the EZ ones make sure that you brush in one direction as all
your brush strokes will show.

"Marianne" wrote :

Instead of trying to paint using a "needle"

The needle detail is actually my sculpting. For instance, I am working
on a lightening bug on a peach leaf, actual size with fairly accurate
detail. I find that the "Cover coat" underglaze blurs such fine detail. The
EZ doesn't seem to, but getting a full coat without the erosion of multiple
brush strokes is difficult.

Maybe I should not be looking at glazes at all, but maybe stains or like
Steve said, acrylic paint? I would prefer adding color after the first
firing, so that I don't damage the shape with brush strokes.