Combining
Painting and Fusing
Painted oyster catchers with frit and stringer |
In
general it is best to work down from the highest to the lowest
temperature in your firings. This does require planning of the
firing sequence in addition to the usual design considerations.
This
sequence of firing depends on the glass stainers' paint you are
using. The tracing paints (blacks, browns, some whites, some blue
greens) that fire at 650ºC and above can be fired up to around 800ºC
without losing much of their intensity. If you use Debitus paints,
they can be fired to 850ºC without loosing their depth of colour.
Fused, painted and slumped piece painted both at fusing and slumping operations |
You
can, of course, use low firing ceramic glazes as they mature in the
region of 700ºC to 850ºC. These can be painted on to the unfired
glass and taken to full fuse without any fading. You do need to make
sure the glaze has time for any volatile materials to burn off, so a
slow rate of advance up to the slumping temperature of the glass is
advisable.
Painted and fused, then painted and slumped. Note the paint lines and coloured glass do not always match or need to. |
If you are using glass stainers' enamels, you need to fuse and shape before firing. You can fire in the mould for the enamel firing as the temperature range is in the 520ºC to 580ºC range and will not add more mould marks to the glass. Keeping the glass in the mould protects against any tendency for the glass to alter shape.
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