Using coloured pencils on titanium

Jewelry Discussion
1

First of all, thanks to those who have answered my questions re:
titanium tubing and rings. I will have to see if I can’t learn to
use the lathe in the Industrial Design workshop at uni, if it’s even
possible.

On to other questions: Does any one have any tips or tricks on using
coloured pencils on titanium?

and are there any titanium artists out there, or does any one know
of any contemporary artists using titanium?

Thanks
Kat

2

Hi, Catherine, I use titanium (see
http://www.ganoksin.com/orchid/noel.htm) quite a bit in my work, but
I can’t tell you anything about using colored pencils on them. But I
feel as though you could color the titanium to the look you want,
very permanently, with the colors that titanium does. If you want a
wider range of color, and brighter, you could use niobium. It is
very maleable and ductile, as well as more predictable, and very
bright, but quite soft, for better or worse. I can imagine that
anodized titanium plus pencils might be really cool, now that I
think about it… I’ll be watching the responses. How do people
like Deb Karash and Marilyn Da Silva get pencil to stay on silver?
–Noel

3

I’m under the impression that they apply a coat of gesso before
using the pencils but I can’t cite any references.

Marilyn Smith

4 
    I'm under the impression that they apply a coat of gesso
before using the pencils but I can't cite any references.

You guessed right. Gesso. I got this from Marilyn da Silva herself
back at SNAG’91 at a short pre-conference show’n’tell workshop in
Eugene, Oregan.

Brian
B r i a n A d a m
Auckland NEW ZEALAND
www.adam.co.nz