| Fusing with structure paste |
| You can easily and permanently fuse porcelain and glass to porcelain ...including any of my porcelain flowers.
You will need base for gold or structure paste. Both are white pastes ( as opposed to the yellow hancock's-type raised paste or enamel ) Most paint suppliers will carry base for gold and several artist-teachers carry versions of structure paste. Two that I have had good luck with are Nancy Benedetti's paste and Jean Beebe's structure paste.Jean's paste fires matt and looks great with liquid bright gold over it. Jean has a website on PPIO www.ppio.com Pour out some paste onto a tile and add a little water at a time while mixing with your palette knife. When the paste is about the thickness of toothpaste, frost the back of the porcelain flower with a decent amount of the paste...too little and the flower wont hold...too much and it will ooze out from under the flower. Press the flower down onto the piece. Twisting it a little will help to seat it... Wipe any excess paste off the piece. It will show after firing if there is any left on the piece. Alternately , you can leave paste showing and even use it to make designs on the piece.. I often like to run little river or branch-like shapes that extend to the edge of the piece... Fire to Cone 015 This same method can be used to fuse glass to porcelain . Dichroic glass is beautiful but any glass will work. Dont cover the edges of the glass with the paste. Just seat the glass into the paste enough so that you know it will hold. The 015 firing will mature the paste and round off the sharp edges of the glass.
The paste can also be tinted with chinapaint, if desired, and after firing, it can be covered with liquid bright gold. |