Wax resist isn't working with layering glaze

[Gwendeanne]

I'm not sure if I'm doing this wrong or expecting too much. This is my first time using wax resist to cover glaze before glazing over it.

 

I made a tile with a bird, branches and berries, in an appliqué technique. Bisque fired to 06. I then brush the branches with brown glaze, a black bird and wine berries. The background is a blue (georgies blueberry)., all cone 5 glazes. It takes a lot of time to do this, and the background isn't so pretty. So,the next time I made this tile after glazing bird, branches and berries, I decided to use Aftosa wax resist on all except the background. I sprayed the background with the blueberry glaze. The blue sprayed glaze looked good on the background, but also covered the wax quite a bit. I thought it would be easy to remove the blueberry glaze that piled up on the bird, branches and berries. It was not. I used a wet sponge and it was difficult to get any off the wax. When it did come off it took some of the blueberry glaze off and some of the wine colored berries. It looks like a mess. I did let the wax dry for over 24 hrs, actually several days. I used at least two coats of the wax, it looked pretty thick and the coverage looked good. The glaze was given time to dry too.

 

Any suggestions or ideas, because now looking back, it took less time to brush all the detail, but still, I like the sprayed background, looks better than the brush.

 

Thanks.

[Lucille Oka]

I'm not sure if I'm doing this wrong or expecting too much. This is my first time using wax resist to cover glaze before glazing over it.

 

I made a tile with a bird, branches and berries, in an appliqué technique. Bisque fired to 06. I then brush the branches with brown glaze, a black bird and wine berries. The background is a blue (georgies blueberry)., all cone 5 glazes. It takes a lot of time to do this, and the background isn't so pretty. So,the next time I made this tile after glazing bird, branches and berries, I decided to use Aftosa wax resist on all except the background. I sprayed the background with the blueberry glaze. The blue sprayed glaze looked good on the background, but also covered the wax quite a bit. I thought it would be easy to remove the blueberry glaze that piled up on the bird, branches and berries. It was not. I used a wet sponge and it was difficult to get any off the wax. When it did come off it took some of the blueberry glaze off and some of the wine colored berries. It looks like a mess. I did let the wax dry for over 24 hrs, actually several days. I used at least two coats of the wax, it looked pretty thick and the coverage looked good. The glaze was given time to dry too.

 

Any suggestions or ideas, because now looking back, it took less time to brush all the detail, but still, I like the sprayed background, looks better than the brush.

 

Thanks.

 

 

 

Dry the wax completely. But sponge the glaze off of the wax while the glaze is still damp. You can also try masking off the area with plastic wrap or a paper stencil before spraying.

[Guest JBaymore]

I have never been satisfied with the use of the liquid wax resists for this kind of decoration.

 

Unfortunately nothing seens to beat hot parrafin wax for this use. Once you have used it, nothing else measues up and is a constant source of frustration.

 

The downside issues are the toxic fumes from the hot wax and the real fire danger if it overheats. This is not really something all that suited for school studios or community studios.

 

I use hot wax for this function. It is set up in a power-vented "fume hood" kind of setting, the container is temperature controlled, and the is a fire extinguaisher right next to it. It is never left "unattended".

 

It takes some getting used to to do this brushwork well. The wax has to be pretty HOT when it hits the already glazed surface. You want it to penetrate into the dry glaze layer, not just sit on top where it can flake off.

 

best,

 

..............john