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Air Pen, Anybody Mixing Slips Or Glazes For This?


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I have been trying out my new air pen. I used it at NCECA with no problem. I am challenged to get the right flow mixture fir a luster glaze. Maybe it works better with clay based slips. It either have it too wet or too thick. Need to find the happy spot mix.

 

Any suggestions?

 

Marcia

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What are you using as a binder for the lusters? With some airbrushes a drip cup is used to try and determine the proper thickness of a material. You may need to resort to that. Otherwise I would probably check with the company.

 

Best,

Pres

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I am sorry I wasn't more clear. I am trying to draw lines with a luster glaze for raku.

This isn't 018 gold type luster. I can do that with the type of applicator you mentioned. I

am needing advice on the consistency of the glaze...I will get it nailed down sooner or later. 

the air flow is controlled by the finger pressure over a hole on the applicator and /or the size orifice in the nozzle.

Marcia

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Ok lets try another approach. When you bought the air pen, did you get any inks with it for other uses? If so, why not try their consistency in the pen to see how it works and what the consistency of the ink is. This may give you clues as to how to use the pen with the lusters.

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No I didn't get any inks nor slips. I just used it at the conference. It was already loaded. 

During my practice at home, I think it may be a problem with finer granules of copper. I went back to the US Pigment copper carb I had. It must have a higher grade of copper but it also have larger granules. At 60 mesh, it still clogged the nozzle. I will have to bump it up to 80 or 100 mesh sieve.

 

I think using the finer tip will help reduce the large squirts coming out. And seiving finer with stop the clogging of the tip. 
...learning curve for new tool. Always something.

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I think you may be correct there. My one airbrush that I have used is was very fine. It would not work with India inks, as it would always sputter. Changing to other inks like Sennelier or

Koh-i -Nor made major improvement. They are finer ground.

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Marcia try running the stuff in a blender for 5 minutes-it often works wonders.

MarkI did that already. I always use a blender for my small glaze amounts. Thanks. But I still think the problem is this rich copper source. I quit using it for this reason in the first pace but my colors were dull. It is a high grade copper. My regular spray gun doesn't have a problem. The air pen, like the hypodermic needles I have used in the past,  can get plugged up. 

Thanks for the suggestion though. Blenders are very handy for mixing.

Marcia

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I don't have much to offer but I am eagerly watching this topic as I would like to get an air pen.  I see some are made for ceramic stuff and others for other purposes though they are probably the same thing.

 

If its working unevenly maybe your material needs to be ball milled. big pain. Someone gave me a rock tumbler I use for a ball mill. 

 

I sure use the electric hand held whisk for a lot of raku glaze mixing. Is your luster raku glaze one with copper carbonate or the fancy stuff with silver nitrate?   I have been trying to get the silver nitrate to work with limited success. the gold seems to rub off.    rakuku

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I am after a thin line of copper luster. I have been doing this for years (decades). This is from a CM article in 1997. I used a sawed off ear syringe with a hypodermic needle stuck into the end. The control was good except for an occasional bubble. I have been hoping to find an applicator with a longer lasting line in one sweep. There is always room for improvement. Moving to Texas, my colors were not as bright as in Montana. This particular plaque was fired in minus 20 degrees F. because the author of the article wanted photos. The colors at that temperature seemed brighter. I did a whole show of work fired in extreme cold. The purer copper from US pigments has given me some great colors for the background. But I may need to ball mill this copper in order to get it fine enough to flow through my fine tip.

 

Marcia

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Marcia, to state the obvious: if you have any red copper oxide about it might be worth

trying that as well, in case it flows better. I've only used it once, but IIRC it seemed less

clumpy than the carbonate (I had to add a drop of detergent to kill its the wax coating).

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Yes, I have some and I know about the detergent trick. Good suggestion. That could resolve my problem quickly. I will try it today. I am going to fire both kilns today small pieces and large pieces. I will throw in some more tests.

Thanks. I did use some red copper oxide in the last group of tests I did for matt surfaces.

I (duh) didn't think about it for the luster.

 

Thank you. Thank you all for making me reanalyze where I am getting the problem. It helps to get another perspective. Sometimes you can just be too close to to what you need to see.

 

Marcia

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