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How To Reveal Lace Texture


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I have made some simple, small cut out Xmas tree decorations with lace texture on one half, plain on the other with a word stamped - 'tree' 'holly' 'start' etc. on the plain half. I use white earthenware (unglazed) and I gift them to friends and family. My daughter said it would be nice to have the lace texture showing up more and without wanting to introduce a colour with an underglaze I've wondered if there is a way of doing it with a silver or gold effect.

 

I'm also working on some wedding favours following a similar idea, for my neice, so silver would work well for this too. Pic of unfired examples below. (2 1/2" - 4" tall)

 

Does anyone have a suggestion as to products out there that would achieve this - available in the UK if poss. In an ideal world to use before the bisque so they only need one firing, but not necessarily so!post-13648-0-31308000-1449651434_thumb.jpg

post-13648-0-31308000-1449651434_thumb.jpg

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Since these are ornaments and not food items have you thought about using acrylic paint? It comes in gold and silver metallic and you can thin it to do a wash which would gather in the lace texture and accentuate it. It would of course have to be painted on after bisque firing but you would not have to fire again.

 

T

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Glaze them White, then after firing, spray paint with Krylon Acrylic enamel, or equvalent. Then Buffing compound like used on car finishes to remove the paint on high areas. These metallic paints now com in nice hammered colors that can work very well.

 

 

best,

Pres

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Yesterday I sprayed a bunch of cookie cutter ornaments (white clay, bisque fired) using Krylon Glitter Shimmer opulent opal spray paint.  I'm really pleased with the result.  This spray paint must be used outside because of the fumes.  Not wanting to get glitter paint all over my wrought iron table, I made a hanger from wire, inserted hanger into the top of a large cardboard box and sprayed each ornament suspended from the wire hanger, trapped the fumes inside the box.  After painting about 2 dozen ornaments this way, I just laid the rest flat inside the box and sprayed away, spraying two coats of paint.  Wow!  They are lovely.  I did wash the bisque dust off the ornaments before spray painting them.

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Thanks for all your responses! I also love the plain white - it was just in response to someone's comment about something to show up the texture more. I'd definitely try things out to see if it improves them or not - I completely take the point about 'kitschy" Chris. I'll also see what the bride thinks.

Sounds like a nice idea Pres but I really don't want to over-complicate it, especially as there are going to be 180 of them!!!!

I might take a look at the Amaco Rub n Buff, see what I think.

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Perhaps a very thin oxide wash, sponged off the high parts; perhaps manganese or iron oxide.  Wouldn't be silver, and wouldn't suit everyone's taste, but I've seen some excellent lace textured pieces done this way.  Caveat: my experience is with mid or high fire, and this may not be a winner at earthenware temps.  One could also apply an shiny or even opalescent glaze and sponge it off the high parts.

 

All that said, I agree with others, the white is beautiful; it has the advantage of being easy, and you won't please everybody no matter what you do.

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Hmm...never thought of it that way round Nancy, with the high spots coloured, low spots natural clay. Something else to ponder, though as I usually do the underglaze on these when bone dry, to preserve the texture, I'd have to develop a v light touch to prevent it pulling down from the top surface. We're taliking no more than 1/8" thickness, which makes it v absorbent!

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  • 4 months later...

I notice that you have pressed lace into the ornaments. What looks even better is to press the lace into a slab of clay about 8mm thick, wait for it to firm up a bit, then remove the lace. Dry the clay slab and fire it to bisque. Use that as your mold for lace texture. It is easy to do on a small scale and your pieces will look as if they have real lace stuck on them.

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Hmm...never thought of it that way round Nancy, with the high spots coloured, low spots natural clay. Something else to ponder, though as I usually do the underglaze on these when bone dry, to preserve the texture, I'd have to develop a v light touch to prevent it pulling down from the top surface. We're taliking no more than 1/8" thickness, which makes it v absorbent!

If you use an engobe or colored slip, instead of underglaze, it can be applied to the pieces while they are damp, eliminating absorption problems.

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