Glass Enamelling
Enamels are vividly coloured glass powder or glass paints which, when fired in the kiln, are permanently fixed to a piece of clear glass. In the kiln heat, a marvellous thing happens when these layers of glass and colour join together. There are no apparent surface joins and the powders or granulated glass simply melt into each other.
Glass enamelling involves hand-decorating a glass surface with coloured, powdered or granulated glass or liquid glass paints. The glass is then fired in a kiln under a range of temperatures depending on the glass, its thickness and the enamels used. Liquid or dry enamel techniques can be used to create wonderful tableware, window panels, tiles, jewellery, box tops, table tops and other items.
Most enamelling is done on fusing glass, however many of the commercial enamellists create lovely tableware using ordinary float glass. Float glass is also as window glass. It can be quite successfully used with 90 COE powders such as Thompsons Enamel powders.
