jonnie

This shows the result of sprinkling a mustard colored ceramic pigment ( Thompson enamels ) on an offwhite enamel that had already been fired and ground ( to give a smooth flat matt surface as is my preference ). The whole lot was refired ( 850 C | 1562 F ) for a few minutes and then reground. The surface does appear to have been pigmented but I know from other examples that this is "skin" deep and that a few strokes of a diamond file would remove it. I have been experimenting with mixing the pigment into the enamel very finely but the result in most cases is that the pigment floats to the surface during the firing and I get an unattractive mottled appearance with very little evidence of color bleeding or blending. I believe that the ceramic pigments are fritted ( perhaps because this is considered safer than raw metal oxides ).

This is a result of finely mixing ( with some grinding) standard enamel powders (intended for copper) shown at a magnification of 400x. The enamels were fired for a few minutes by torch at an estimated temperature of 850 C / 1562 F It shows almost no color blending - I was hoping for a little "fuzziness" at least.