white bullsye powder-pate de verre

[osnat]

Hellow evryone
Happy Hanukkah, and Thanksgiving Dasys to all.

I playing with Pate de verre tec.
When Im using white powder (0313-08 bullseye) , i got grey results.

I must say , that in the past i treied to work withe white Spectrum powder , and got the same .

Do you know why,
There is otherway to use it and get a white powder .

Osnat

[Brad Walker]

You'll need to use the Opaque White 0013. The normal 0113 white isn't dense enough to give you a true white.

[osnat]

Thank you.

I will try

[Morganica]

If you use a dense white, try putting it farther down in the layers, with a different powder on top. Dense opaques on the surface tend to make it look painted. Try puttin 1401, or even translucent white or opaline down first, then backing with dense white. That should preserve the jade-like pate de verre qualities to some extent, while the dense white background will keep things bright.

[osnat]

Thank you.
I mix the white powder (313) with clear powder (1401),and in other time I mix the white whit clear and vanilla (307).

All of them get grey.
I will try to work , with your advice, to work in layer.
(I find have other choice , for at least the next 2 months not in stock)

Thank
Osnat

[Havi]

Is there not a reaction between the different powders?


also, I fail to see 307 color, so I am afraid the true color is 1370 French Vanilla, which IS reactive.


????
Brad, Cynthia, I'd appreciate your comments

Thanks

Havi

[Morganica]

If there are reactive chemicals in two glass powders that are touching, then yes, you'll get a reaction that changes the color where those powders meet. French Vanilla is a sulfur-bearing glass; Dense White is lead-bearing, so if they touch and are fired, you'll get a dark area where the two glasses come in contact, and sometimes a little beyond.

You can exploit that reaction when you're mixing powders; a little Dense White sprinkled into French Vanilla will give you an antiqued, speckled effect. Normally, though, you're right, you don't want to directly mix them.

That's one reason layering is sometimes the best choice, because it DOES allow you to "mix" glass colors that otherwise would turn dark. Sift down the first reactive powder, then sift a non-reactive color (such as 1401 crystal clear) over the top of the first, making sure it's completely covered. Now sift the second on top--the reactive colors won't touch, so they won't react.

Obviously, this isn't as successful with colors that are MEANT to be highly reactive, such as the Reactive Ice colors.

[Morganica]

Osnat, this is an example of what I'm talking about; it's a closeup of a portrait I did a few years ago (the full portrait's in another thread on this board).

There are about 30 thin layers of glass in the skin (apricot-colored) section. The top layers are 1401 crystal clear, mixed with increasing amounts of Light Peach Cream and Coral Orange Tint in successive layers. At around the 20th layer, there's a very fine sifting of Pimento Red powder. Pimento Red is so concentrated that it gives that super-warm tone to all the layers above it. (There's also a layer of transparent plum around the eyelids to give them darker shade. It's sifted right before the pimento goes down, but it's hard to see here)

The white areas next are only 1401 crystal clear until about the 15th layer. Then there's a layer of opaque white. It stops the light and makes all the layers above it look very white. If you see this in person, there's no grey there at all. The background is black. I deliberately thinned the white layer in spots, letting the black show through to create the illusion of shadows in the hairline.

You can see where I've made a mistake (or it's slipped in the firing) and the white layer has gone beyond the hair and into what's supposed to be the skin. Even though there is a lot of colored glass above and below that thin white layer, it's enough to turn the skin white.

Hope that helps.

[Havi]

Thanks, Cynthia ,
Your knowledge and experience are always illuminating!



Havi

[osnat]

Hello ,and Happy Holidays!!!

Morganica,

Your answers are so detailed and teach, and I want to thank you, I always love to read them
I would be happy if I could see you working and understand how you build the color with this layir tec.
So , Can you recommend a book explaining the technique?

I read that you have Thousands of examples of a variety of colors that you test,How do you save, organize, store them?
All the best
Osnat

[Morganica]

I'm not sure there is a book explaining it, Osnat. I came up with the technique pretty much on my own, although I'm certain I wasn't the first (or even among the first). I was trying to obtain more realistic skin tones, and it occurred to me that a lot of skin colors actually come from the organs/muscles underneath the skin. The skin itself is translucent.

So I began experimenting with keeping pale/transparents closer to the mold, and gradually adding deeper colors as the thickness increased. It seemed to work, and along the way I discovered that I got far more realistic shadows if I added one thin, very deep, saturated color behind many layers of pale transparents, than I did by gradually building up saturation evenly. That's led to all kinds of testing and a LOT of color samples. Fascinating stuff, but I'm not sure there's any place to really see that outside my studio.

[osnat]

Hellow,

Thank for your answer.I agree with you that is fascinating staff Especially when you get the desired result.
For me, at this point, is still hard to ״feel ״the color, but I'm keep trying and making samples.

In fact, the detail features are at the bottom of the mold.Does this mean that you put the colors in opposite order? (I hope I explained myself correctly)

And how you "control" the color when it is not open wild mold.
I read in your blog that you have "Master Class 4: Pâte de verre with Shin-ichi and Kimiake Higuchi",
In this video , does he explain his way of working ( mold, color) or jast photo of his works?

Thank you
All the best
Osnat