Hi Everyone;

This is a response I wrote about the portrait of my cat, posted on the site. Trish suggested that I post here and share what I have discovered using this medium.

The painting of the cat was done with a set of enamels I purchased from Thompson Enamel. The box they came in says " Glass Painting Acrylics" and I got 9 small tubes of colors. The tubes read" Vitrearc@ Acrylic Enamel".

The technique is that you use them much like you would a paint, by aplying with a brush or palate knife. When dry, you fire to 1425 degrees farenheit.

It is my understanding that these are finely ground, glass enamel suspended in an acrylic solution, but I could be wrong about that....

If you have never used them they do not go on smoothly like paint and need to be applied with a patting motion to get the depth of color. Also, they dry out very quickly, so you can only work with small amounts at a time and you need to keep the tubes tightly capped...I store the tubes in a ziplock bag.

Once dry they can be reconstituted with water...I think they are more like using water color paints than traditional acrylic paints.

Additionally, the color/pigment that comes out of the tubes is not the true color when fired...so for those who are used to using regular painting pigments, this makes the design difficult to execute because you cannot "see" the actual final colors.

Once dried and fired , they do not melt in the kiln like traditional enamal grains do...they do not seem to liquify as much and the finish is not "glass like" and as shiney as one might expect with a fired enamel.

Good Luck and have fun experimenting! Best MB