Hi Everyone,

Working for the first time with opaques.  Starting a piece that I have questions about.

I plan on doing a face where the lines are cloisonne.  I want the backround black.  Recent experiment I used clear on the surface first (copper) then added black.  With multiple firings the black op started to separate and shrink.  Was the firing to long?  Should I have put the black directly on the copper?  ANy help with the face?  I was thinking the first fire would be white, but not sure.  I want to have a slight blue opal skin tone....with shading.  Any help or pointers you can give?

thanks, Sondra
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If you were getting bubbles of the clear coming up and the black separated but there was still clear behind it, then most likely your clear was softer (lower melting temp) than the black. If you want to start with clear I would used a hard fusing (high fire) clear, so it won't bubble up. If you want to skip the clear, I would first test which color is softer. Do a test piece of black on white, and one of white on black. Fire them until one bubbles up- whichever one that was that's not the way you want to do it!

If the black was creeping an breaking up with no sign of the clear popping through you just overfired. Cut back on time or temperature.

I almost always slightly underfire cloisonne until the last few layers.  

With copper you're going a white or slightly off white background for a clean color slate unless you want to put a layer of silver foil in there.

Good luck!

~margarita 

Hi Sondra,

I agree with Margaret that it's important to test the fusing temperatures for the flux versus the black, so that's a good first step.  

I've had similar experience with the opaque black shrinking and separating when applied over flux.  This is what finally worked for me when I wanted a black background on my tree frog box: fire flux on copper, then a thin layer of opaque black Bovano #36.  Then I added a couple of dark transparents over the black; I used Thompson 356T Concord and Ninomiya L82 Transparent Medium Blue Purple.  There was no shrinking or separating, and I did hundreds of firings on that piece, some way too hot and too long.  I don't recommend that but my point is that the over-firing is not the problem with the black.

I'm working on a portrait now that begins with flux on copper, then I added my wires, then a layer of Schauer Opaque 9154 for the flesh tones.  This color is very hard-fusing and must be fired just right.  Don't underfire because the skin will look like it has acne.  Don't overfire because the enamel will creep up the wires and you won't be able to get your shading right.  And be aware that many reds and pinks will darken with each firing, so apply sparingly and fire those colors last.  

Good luck!

Melinda 

In your experience, which is the hard fusing clear?

Is it necessary to use flux on the copper before the color?  

Isn't putting FS wires into flux on copper dangerous.  I had one royal blunder with the wires fired down and touched the copper and disappeared.

You do not need flux direct on copper as a preliminary step. When i do a cloisonne on copper, i begin with a high firing layer of white (so that it won't bubble up or crawl up the wires. the first coat is doing several things: providing a layer of enamel for the wires to adhere, and creating an enamel canvas to begin layering your colors. unless you need transparent colors showing the copper base, the flux is a waste of time. it's not doing anything.

i like white as it provides a neutral background for any transparent enamels i use which may not cover my foil pieces. a transparent blue over white contrasted to the same transparent blue over foil will give you a very different play of light and color, which can be used to your advantage as a design element within the piece (texture, pattern, value).

and yes, you need to be very carefull firing your wires onto any base coat of enamel on copper. if you overheat, the wires sink down, and get close enough to the copper to create a eutectic bond which lowers the melting point of your fine silver wires. a mere second of overfiring can cause this, which will show up as anything from a slight lowering of your wires as they begin to sink, or a black pool of copper/silver mixture wherever the wires melted. I did this recently on some color tests when i walked into another room while firing some color tests on copper. sometimes it's worth the cost of using a fine silver base just so you don't have to deal with any anxiety about doing this accidently. btw, the white background will provide a nice base underneath the shading of a face. you could also choose to look at some other off white colors, creams, light beiges, etc, for your background/base coat. this also saves you from having to fire a separate layer of the base coat inside your face wirework.

I use Thompson's lead free enamels and they actually call it Hard Fusing Clear. Yay for easy to remember! I'm sure other people may be able to help out with the other brands:)

ONE royal blunder?! Lucky you! I am the queen of royal eutectic blunders!

With those enamels I mentioned, I've used both leaded flux #333 (I think that's an old Thompson flux) and Bovano #3.  Either one should work, just do a tester to make sure your colors aren't harder-fusing than the flux you choose.  

I like to start with flux because I always like to see through the depths of color to the copper base on some part of the piece.  Using opaques on the copper creates a shallower optical illusion, so you can use opaques to bring your eye to the foreground and transparents where you want to look deeper into the design.  But that's just a design question, it's totally up to you and the look you're after.

I've used fine silver wires on copper with no problem; it's not really dangerous (but the wires on my tree frog box were copper).  I do consider the firing where you're fusing the wires to the piece to be the trickiest firing.  It needs to be monitored very carefully because the wires are so fragile and subject to melting before they're protectively encased in enamel.  When fusing the wires to the piece, put a small amount of your base enamel near an edge and as soon as that begins to reach orange peel, remove it!