How to paint a glass bead with glass enamels. By Jill Egan
Materials: Glass bead still on the mandrel Drying waterbased medium Glass enamels Brushes Wooden satay stick or cocktail stick Palette knife or something to mix the enamel such as an old kitchen knife Tile to mix the enamel on Small piece of sponge Kitchen roll Water Note: Glass enamels, medium, brushes etc can be purchased from Held www.held.co.uk Method: 1. Firstly make your bead from white or pale coloured glass. 2. Put a small pile of glass enamel powder onto your tile, add about a quarter the amount of waterbased medium, mix with the palette knife and thin with a few drops of water if necessary to a consistency slightly thicker than single cream. 3. Paint the enamel onto the bead and use a bit of sponge to get an even coating. Leave to dry, you can speed up the process using a hair dryer. 4. Using the satay stick (or cocktail stick) draw your design; use a dry soft brush to dust of any crumbs of enamel. ŠJill Egan 2012
5. Use a moistened brush, blotted on kitchen paper to wipe out the petals, pulling the brush towards the centre of the flower, you will see that leaving some residual paint will give form to the petals. Dry the paint 6. Use the satay stick to clean out the flower centre then paint it in, and add some dots for the anthers. 7. Use the same process to form the leaves, dry your bead and brush off any crumbs of enamel with a dry soft brush. 8. Fire your bead slowly to 560 Centigrade ( I used SP1 on my Paragon SC3 kiln which is a rate of 111°C per hour).Leave the bead to cool in the kiln. I didn’t anneal my bead as it was just an experiment but you may wish to build an annealing cycle into your firing schedule.
Have fun Jill
© Jill Egan 2012