Thanks, everyone, for your replies.
Jennifer- No, I didn’t counter enamel it. It’s meant to be a silver
piece with decorative enamel on it, so to put enamel on the back
would ruin that effect. I think, though, that the silver piece is
thick enough to not need it. It’s certainly thicker than other pieces
I’ve successfuly not counter enameled, plus the enamel isn’t as thick
as the metal.
Mark- > That’s certainly an interesting thought, I don’t recall that
ever being a concern when I took my enamelling classes, but either
that just never came up with what I did, or it’s been too long for me
to remember that (certainly a possibility!). I am pretty sure,
though, that in those classes there was never a cooling and
reheating of the kiln. One person would put in their pieces, fire
them for a few minutes, take them out to cool, and the next person
would put theirs in. To answer your question, then, I do just do the
firing & take it right out, just as I always have. This is my own
personal kiln now, though, and as for having the kiln adjust the
temp, I have a digital control on my kiln, so I can quite easily have
it do whatever I need. Don’t I risk overfiring, though, asking it to
fire for only a couple minutes & then cool down? It would seem to me
that the timing needs to be relatively so quick that it would be at
the firing temp, that it would still be very close to that temp for
too many more minutes as it tries to cool down.
RM- > (I’ve gotten that from someone else, too) I suppose that’s a
possibility. I did, though, fire that one at the same time as
another, even thicker, piece, and the enamelling on that one worked
like a charm. That brings up the issue, though, of how do I really
know it’s fully fired? I mean, it “clinks” like it’s solid metal, it
shines up like metal, it looks fired. I had some earrings I did,
though, actually my first piece in this kiln, that when I put them in
pickle later (I added ear wires & soldered them closed), everything
turned a muddy brown, including other things I had in the pickle at
the same time. I reheated them with the torch & they cleaned up
fine, then- in fresh pickle. I’m not sure if maybe I didn’t fire the
PMC long enough, maybe it wasn’t fully fired. I’ve been told many
times that every kiln is different, just like regular ovens. So if
one person, for instance, fuses glass at 1500 degrees, mine may fuse
at a different temp. Actually, it seems mine fires at a VERY
different temp, though, like 1640. Does that seem a little TOO
different to anyone else? I’m still tweaking that calculation, but I
don’t imagine I’ll get it much lower. And then what does that mean
for the firing schedules packaged with the PMC? I mean, with the
glass it’s easy to see if it’s actually done. Enamel, too. It’s
fused or it’s not. With PMC, I’m not so sure how to tell. If my kiln
fused glass 1050 degrees hotter than what I’ve heard is “the fusing
temp”, does that mean everything else should be that much higher in
my kiln, or at least a fair amount higher? I seem to be able to
enamel successfully at 1575 for 1.5 to 3 mins, which is about what it
seems it should be. I fired my first PMC+ piece (the earrings) at (I
think) 1650 for 10 mins (maybe a little higher & a little longer).
Maybe since my kiln seems to need to read hotter, that wasn’t hot
enough for that length time. Since I feared maybe it hadn’t fired
well enough, I did the next batch - this cracked piece & one other
piece - at 1600 for 20 minutes. That’s then basically the lowest
temp at the middle time. Maybe I need to try doing it for longer at a
higher temp, just to be sure, but as I mentioned before the other
piece seems to be fine. I liked the idea of only firing it for 30
mins or less, but I suppose I need to be more patient to make sure
it’s done right. Anyway, though, once again, how do I know it’s done?
Oh, and thanks for the mention about trying to melt the PMC later,
I’ll certainly keep that in mind!
Sandi- You asked, too, if I counter enamelled, but also suggested
that maybe the COE might be different. Now, if I bought them both
from the same series through Thompson, shouldn’t they be the same?
When you ask about getting all of the chemicals, etc, out of the
enamel, do you mean it being fully fired? I’m not sure what other
chemicals there might be. I didn’t do any soldering or pickling or
anything before (or during or after) I enamelled it. I also burnished
it as much as I could (lots of little crevices) before enamelling, to
try to “close the pores” as much as possible, as I’ve heard it’s a
bit porous after firing. I guess, as you suggest, the best thing to
do to try to get it back to where it needs to be is to start over
with the enamel. Thanks for the suggestion on how to get a fair
amount of the enamel off. Maybe, though, I can just try to get the
top coat off, not all the bits down in the design area? I think if I
have to get every last bit of it off, I won’t be able to do that
without risking the design, in which case I would TOTALLY start over
& figure out what to do with this piece of enamelled metal (sniff).
Lisa
Designs by Lisa Gallagher