VanTiki Mugs: Octopus Time Lapse - Other Crafts

V VanTiki Member Hawaii Joined: Nov 25, 2005 Posts: 1046	V VanTiki Posted posted on Mon, May 19, 2008 11:22 AM Mahalo GoTiki, Babalu, and TeaKEY! I love the set of sushi love - I hope both sets get picked up by the same person as they look great together. And now let me switch gears.... A few weeks ago I splurged on a microscopic bottle of gold glaze. Now, this isn't just any ol' gold-colored glaze - it is a glaze made of actual gold! (you ceramic folks out there will know what I am talking about). I have always read about the stuff, and I decided to give it a go. Now, I can't begin to describe how stressful it was painting with this stuff! Imagine a thimble half-filled with vanilla extract - only this modicum of extract cost you $20! Yikes! No spills or drips!~ Anyway, you need to apply this stuff to glazed ceramics - so I bisque fired 2 spooky skulls, pained them with gloss black glaze, fired them to cone 6, then painted on the gold. The crazy thing is it does not look at all like gold when you work with it (in typical pain-in-the ass mess-with-your-brain glaze fashion). The vanilla extract analogy was fairly spot on. From what I gather, the glaze is actually made of microscopic beads of gold suspended in a shellac. Boy-oh-boy did it SMELL when I fired up the kiln for the final firing (a low-temp cone 018 - around 1300 degrees F) - I am glad my kiln is vented! So - did it work? Here is a before and after peek at the tiles on the bottom of the kiln: Whoo! Here you can see the freshly painted tiles covered in shellac and the fired golden goodness: And finally the golden fun: What will I do with these guys? Well, one is a travel bug for my crazy geocaching hobby. Much like this fellow (but I won't be releasing it into the wild): http://www.geocaching.com/track/details.aspx?id=659841 And that concludes this episode of "The Wonders Of Glaze" Mahalo for peeking! Henrik "VanTiki"

Mahalo GoTiki, Babalu, and TeaKEY! I love the set of sushi love - I hope both sets get picked up by the same person as they look great together.

And now let me switch gears....

A few weeks ago I splurged on a microscopic bottle of gold glaze. Now, this isn't just any ol' gold-colored glaze - it is a glaze made of actual gold! (you ceramic folks out there will know what I am talking about). I have always read about the stuff, and I decided to give it a go. Now, I can't begin to describe how stressful it was painting with this stuff! Imagine a thimble half-filled with vanilla extract - only this modicum of extract cost you $20! Yikes! No spills or drips!~ Anyway, you need to apply this stuff to glazed ceramics - so I bisque fired 2 spooky skulls, pained them with gloss black glaze, fired them to cone 6, then painted on the gold. The crazy thing is it does not look at all like gold when you work with it (in typical pain-in-the ass mess-with-your-brain glaze fashion). The vanilla extract analogy was fairly spot on. From what I gather, the glaze is actually made of microscopic beads of gold suspended in a shellac. Boy-oh-boy did it SMELL when I fired up the kiln for the final firing (a low-temp cone 018 - around 1300 degrees F) - I am glad my kiln is vented!

So - did it work? Here is a before and after peek at the tiles on the bottom of the kiln:

Whoo! Here you can see the freshly painted tiles covered in shellac and the fired golden goodness:

And finally the golden fun:

What will I do with these guys? Well, one is a travel bug for my crazy geocaching hobby. Much like this fellow (but I won't be releasing it into the wild):

http://www.geocaching.com/track/details.aspx?id=659841

And that concludes this episode of "The Wonders Of Glaze"

Mahalo for peeking!
Henrik "VanTiki"

Post #381219 by VanTiki on Mon, May 19, 2008 11:22 AM