Tuesday, August 31, 2010

A Work In Progress - China Painting

It's time to repost this as I have been getting questions again. I hope you enjoy it.
Inspiration Piece
Blank China

So people always ask me how I do this. This time I took some pictures at each stage. Each piece of china is painted and fired in a kiln to a temperature of 1800 degrees multiple times. Here's some pictures of how it progresses:





Design Sketched in
The paints used are powdered paint pigments, mixed with oil for a painting medium.  Some people buy special mixtures of oils, however, you can use anything from mineral oil to motor oil!

Brushes used are very soft.  Unlike other types of painting very little paint is loaded on the brush. Your brush "kisses" the porcelain as you paint.

TheFirst Painting & Firing
Second Painting & Firing
Each piece is painted multiple times as you build up your color from light to dark. There is no white on the palette, the white seen is actually the porcelain showing through. At each firing the glaze opens up and the paint goes into the glaze. As it cools the glaze closes and the paints become permanent. They will never wash off. They are dishwasher & microwave safe.

Third Painting & Firing
The only exception to this is if the porcelain artist uses gold or lusters on the piece. Gold is actually 24kt. liquid gold. When fired it doesn't go into the glaze. It sits on top of the glaze. Lusters like mother of pearl also sit on the top of the glaze. For that reason should you have gold or lusters, handwashing is advised.  Gold should never be put into the microwave as it is a metal and might give you a fireworks show!

So, if you are interested in porcelain art (a gift to treasure for generations to come), please visit the porcelain section of my Etsy shop:
http://www.etsy.com/shop/JYWheeler?section_id=5051128

5 comments:

Unknown said...

Thank you so much for the step by step process. I find your work not only beautiful, but fascinating.

Kathleen said...

Lovely work! Very delicate - enjoyed seeing the process!

Lisa said...

Your work is just wonderful in this art! Well done Joann!!

angelself said...

Thanks so much, Joann. I've always wondered how this was done. I have a small glass kiln and dabble a bit, fusing suncatchers and pendants. I put glass paints on my xmas list so I can start painting on my little pieces. It will only require two firings. I am inspired by the patience and workmanship you put into the painted porcelain process. The results are very beautiful!

Ingrid Lee said...

It's a great to see the progress of your painting in each stage...a sweet posy of violets :)

A Day in the Past

Facebook reminded me that  8 years ago I was at the coliseum in Rome. The most amazing observation I made was that it was so quiet. People s...