Skip to main content

Experimenting With Liquid Enamel


 Something that's been on my to-do list for a while now is trying liquid enamel. I had a few weeks "break" over Christmas {not really a break as I was making new stuff!} so at long last I got round to ordering some of the liquid enamel powders. I got a few basic colours and a white so I could mix different shades. I also bought a white crackle base powder to experiment with.


I mixed up the colours with distilled water in totally unsuitable containers - too tall and thin and I've since bought some wider pots - and started painting. I applied the liquid enamels to a base of cream opaque and on two of the pieces I fired a layer of white crackle base before applying the liquid enamel.


Lumps in the enamel means I didn't mix properly!


Once I'd finished painting I set the copper pieces onto a warmed soldering block to speed up drying. When they were dry I started scratching designs {I use that word in the loosest possible context} into the dried enamel using a wooden skewer.


I then fired them using a torch. In my excitement I forgot which two had the crackle base. The effect you should get when you apply a liquid enamel on top of a crackle base and then fire it is the crackle base pushing through the top layer and creating a cracked effect but as you can see it didn't work very well on the two pieces I tried it with.


I did get the start of a crackled effect on the bottom corners of this piece but I did read it needs a larger area, in other words a bigger piece of copper, to work properly.


I liked the effect mixing the white liquid enamel powder with the other colours gave - a kind of speckled effect which reminds me of ceramic glazes. The "straight" colours with no white added came out a bit patchy in comparison but that may be because I got the mix too runny.

I then etched them all for a matt finish.


I still have work to do but it's a fun thing to try. I think it works better when you go with the flow rather than try to be too exact and it seems you can get different results with the colours depending on how long you fire them for - the oranges I mixed came out a bit on the pink side the first time I tried them then more orange the second time....

I did make a few pairs for sale but I feel the need for more practicing {and some more colours!} 

liquid enamel earrings



Comments

  1. Liquid/powder enamels if you want to get rid of the lumps - you can use a pestle to do some additional grinding of the powder before mixing and after you can use a muller ( I typically dont mix a big batch of liquid I put some powder on a glass sheet add my water and then use the muller to grind/mix and use a palette knife to collect back into a neat pile and paint right from the soup you made on the glass - you can scoop into a small resealable container (I like those plastic paint storage containers - wide mouth and short
    the samples look great cant wait to see what else your making

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks for your tips Deborah, I'll probably try that next time.

      Delete
  2. I like what you did - awesome!
    I had a great time when I went to Thompson Enamel last year - I got to try new things or things I forgot when I took my enameling class back in 2008.
    I hope you had fun!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks! I'm very jealous of the fact you went to Thompson Enamel! I bet that was interesting :D

      Delete
  3. How fun! I love the finished pieces. This looks like such a neat medium to work with.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Beautiful colors, loved the mixing you did.

    ReplyDelete
  5. can i ask what colors you used? i can't find a chart anywhere and don't want to order blindly- love that orange color!

    ReplyDelete
  6. Pamela,
    I ordered mine from a Thompson enamel supplier in Denmark. The orange colour is called Princeton Orange. I ordered some basic colours and also some white so I could mix it with various colours to get different shades. I had a look on Thompson Enamel's US site but couldn't find any liquid form enamels but then that website is dreadful for finding anything in my opinion!
    If you go to www.enamelsupply.com and download the catalogue you'll find the liquid enamel colours he stocks on page 8 which will give you a better idea. Hope that helps a bit :D

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. thanks - that's a big help - i agree on the thompson site!!

      Delete
  7. HI there - just wondering whether you used only Thompson liquid enamels or another brand? Thanks, Mel

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hi Mel,
      I've also used liquid enamels from WG Ball and Vitrum Signum (both based in the UK). They were both comparable to Thompsons.

      Delete

Post a Comment

Your comments and questions are very welcome!
If you would prefer to contact me directly please use the contact form on my "get in touch" page.

Popular posts from this blog

Combining Soldering And Enamel

The need to make cute, brightly coloured enamel studs propelled me into the world of combining soldering with enamel a couple of years ago. I knew from reading up on it that it was possible to enamel and solder on the same piece but wasn't too confident I was able to do it back then. It was a slightly embarrassing occurance that made me just get on with - I'd made some enamel studs with glued on stud posts. I'd used 2 part epoxy resin which was a job in itself as it set hard after 5 minutes so I had to keep mixing more up. The finished studs looked ok but that little voice in my head kept asking "are you sure you want to use glue?" I wasn't but didn't think I had any other way to do it so I used glue. I sold my first pair and merrily sent them on their way to Canada. A couple of week later the buyer got in touch to say the stud post had come off one of the earrings and the other was hanging off. I was mortified, apologized profusely and refunded her m

Etching Silver Using Nail Art Stamps

So my love/hate relationship with etching sterling silver continues. I've tried a few times now and always end up with different results most of them not that great to be honest. I've tried connecting the silver and a piece of copper to a 9v battery and also heating the ferric nitrate. Sometimes the results are good sometimes not so good. I currently have an etched piece of silver sheet waiting to be reticulated and rid it of the mess that is the etched "pattern".  I now know that using stamps and Stayz On ink just doesn't work with silver - the time needed to etch using ferric nitrate is much longer than etching copper and the ink starts to wear away after about an hour. This results in the pattern being patchy as the resist is eaten away and the silver ends up quite lumpy and course looking. I have yet to try using pnp paper. I don't know why but it all seems a bit of a faff to do. I don't have a laser printer so would need to find somewhere or

Embossing Metal With My Sizzix Bigshot

I must admit up until a few weeks ago I was vaguely familiar with the name Sizzix but as to what you actually did with a "Sizzix" I was completely in the dark! That was until I stumbled across a video from Vintaj showing how you could use their embossing folders with a Bigshot to create designs on metal ("metal" - my favourite word after chocolate!) I was really impressed and itching to have a go, I just needed a Bigshot........ I waited a few weeks then when the urge to possess one overcame me I went out debit card at the ready..............and the shop had sold out! So I trundled off to The Range on the off chance and came home clutching my own surprisingly heavy pink and black wonder machine. It sat on the dining room table for a couple of days while I waited for the embossing folders I'd ordered online to arrive then the time came to start playing! I started with some pre-cut 24g copper hearts and the Wildflower Vines and the Butterfly Swirls Deco