Wet Laying and Colour Mixing with Jane Short at Conference 2008
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- Parent Category: Technical Articles from Journal Back Copies
- Category: Technical Articles 2008
Julie Rattray
Saturday 29th March 2008 saw an enthusiastic group of 11 Guild members and Lucy Irvine (the Guild’s 2008 Bursary student) assembled in Room 6 for the wet laying and colour mixing workshop with Jane Short. The workshop started where all good things should start – at the beginning with a review of metal and enamel preparation.
Metal Preparation
The use of wet and dry paper, pumice powder, glass brushes, brass brushes, detergent, spit and soy sauce were all considered acceptable metal degreasers – essential if the enamel is going to “stick” to the metal. Following degreasing it was recommended that the metal was dried with a clean cloth and brushed with a clean brush. The metal preparation stage could also include coating exposed silver sections with Argotech to minimise fire stain (or Bright Dipping in 50-60% v/v Nitric Acid). The possibility or pre-texturing or engraving the metal to make transparents “lively” was also discussed.
Enamel Preparation
Enamel preparation involved grinding with pestle and mortar to a silky feel. The ground enamels were rinsed with water and both the coarse enamel and fine enamel washings were collected and processed for further use. Both coarse and fine enamels were repeatedly washed and rinsed with water, with the final rinse made using distilled water. All washed enamels were stored under a small amount of water.