I have pulled a 20+ year old collection of ‘enamels’ out of storage.
I cannot identify the manufacturer or source. They are labelled:
OC-17, OC-32, OC-50, OC-70 and OC-191. When fired, these do not melt
at all well at 1,500 F for three to four minutes. Notes on each
bottle say:“Pigment, Must be covered”.
Another lot from the same container are labelled “Overglaze, With or
Without Cover” with the numbers: 906-E, 907-E, 908-E, 909-E, 909-E,
etc (I have some twenty bottles of these). These fire quite well and
appear to be opaques. I believe these came from an enamels teacher
in a class I took 20+ years ago. Hate to throw good stuff away!!!
Anybody got ideas as to what these are, who made them, current
supplier, etce?
Tom Stringfellow
Tom,
All your enamels were manufactured by Thompson Enamel, P.O. Box
72310, Newport KY 41072. Get their catalog and it will tell you how
to use them.
The OC- colors are Ceramic Pigments and need to be covered with a
Transparent Enamel.
The 900 colors are Overglaze Painting Colors, and can be mixed with
oil or water, and used like paint.
Please do not throw them out!
Hi Tom,
You have Thompson enamels. The OC numbers are what used to be called
oxidesthat don’t have any glass in them. They can be used thinly on
top of a pre-enameled surface. Fired and the covered with clear or
transparent enamels or mixed with flux or white as follows.
The OC numbers are from Thompson Painting Kit (PK-1) and are ceramic
pigments that need to be mixed with Mixing White for opaque or
Painting Flux for transparent colors and blended with a special
painting oil. 20% pigment to 80% enamel works for all except:-
Cadmium/Selenium OC70 and OC71 to which the proportion is 5% pigment
to 95% only painting Flux, - Gold bearing OC95 should only be mixed
with dry 913E mixing white in any proportion, - and 1705P, 1708P,
1715P are pinks that do not require mixing to gloss, but can bemixed
with either white or flux to achieve lighter or darker colors.
The 900E series are the same thing only already mixed with some
enamel and will gloss. so don’t need to be covered unless you want
to. If you need more help contact me off line.
Cheers
Jean Vormelker
Hi Tom
the numbers look like Thompson enamel painting colours. Is the
powder very fine? Painting enamel is ground very fine and mixed with a
medium like lavender oil, applied to a smooth enamel base coat,
usually white or opal white, and then fired. Finished with one or
more coats of flux ( clear enamel).
Look at Gillie Hoyte Byrom’s work for examples - some of her
miniatures are fired 30 times.
I believe the overgalze colours can also be used as paints if
properly prepared.
Tamizan Savill