Enamels
 

Any advice on working with enamels?
My question is, do they all boil easily? is there a brand that's better as far as boiling?
If not, the only solution is to heat very slowly? I still get divits as a result of boiling, not matter how low I adjust my heat.

Any help would be appreciated.

=)

-Patti

Yes, they boil easily. If you don't want boiling, work cool (don't let your bead get more than a dark red glow) and don't concentrate the flame in one place for very long.

Work far out if you have a strong focused flame. I have a torch that I use for enamels that has a very gentle flame and it works very well. With my other torch, I have to be really careful because the flame is focused and forceful.

May I ask what the torch is that works well with enamel?

I have a hot, pinpointy flame and enamels are still totally do-able.

The torch doesn't matter, it's how you use it. Work cool and try working under the flame, just brushing the bottom of the flame over the surface of the bead until the enamel looks wet, then you're done. I use only Thompson's for 104 glass.

Robert

robert, i hear ya, but i'm dipping a rod tip in the enamel, then using dots that i want to melt in. so it does rekwire a long period of heating. my shift key and my kew key don't work on this computer, that's why i had to put rekwire...phonetics lol

Has anyone used Thompson glass enamels that aren't made for 104?

I know theoretically they probably won't but the glow glass enamel is adaptable to both 33 and 104 so I'm wondering less than 5% maybe?

You can do it, but you're going to have to go slowly. If you're melting them smooth, I'd probably use a tool to flatten them periodically. It'll help press them into the bead without needing quite so much heat.

I wish they would. I have more of that enamel for copper than I know what to do with. It seemed to me that many of the colors burned easily or wanted to make a thick coat. I tried the enamel paint powders, and those looked MUCH better encased.]

Glow glass powder isn't an enamel and has no glass content. that's why you don't run into compatibility issues.

Robert

I'm sorry..this is off topic but your post just cracked me up!!!:lol:

I remember trying to respond to an Etsy customer, in a convo, with a keyboard from someone else's computer and the "s" and "r" did not work!

Very challenging...anyway....thanks for the laugh Patti!!

As Robert stated, you can do it with any torch but, I use my Carlisle Wildcat when working with enamels. It is easier for me as I am working the enamels for a long time while creating the bead so it just makes over heating it less of a problem.

As I stated above, if you have a hot forceful flame, you have to work very cool and farther out in the flame. I make very large pendants with the enamels so I have to make sure I keep my bead hot enough while working it that it doesn't cool too much and crack. It's a juggle and that is why I use the torch that I do for that particular application.

That makes sense then.


For what it's worth in case I confused anyone: Thompson makes an enamel line for stained glass in addition to 104 colors. The stained glass line has several additional shades. They have a COE of 90-96 compatible for Bullseye. This was the line I was curious over with using less than 5% in a bead unencased.

My thinking is that ThatFritGirl sales Loetz frit and it has a lower COE. Many use this successfully.

But Uroborus and Gaffer/Reichenbach also might be good uses for this enamel series.
Thompson 7000 series.

I was not speaking of the copper or silver enamels. I know those are definitely incompatible.

Does a metal piece, copper for example, after flame enameling need to be annealed in a kiln?

Not to my knowledge. Gail Moore teaches torch enameling on brass parts.

It's the mask that keeps my vast collection of enamels untouched. Can't see, can't breathe...just hate donning darth vader. Tell me it's ok to use paper?

Just to throw in another viewpoint, and I'm admittedly an organic kind of girl, but you might try letting the boiling happen and see what happens. I love the look I get from boiling enamels, but I know it's not that distinct look that you are trying to get.

LOL, Mikelene! I'm on a different computer now, so my QQQQQ works!
Anyway, I have boiled the enamel, albeit accidentally. Not the look I'm going for. Too earthy for this style.
QQQqqqQQQQQQqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqq qqqqqq lol

I think the copper enamels are about 185 COE . Just throwing it out there :)