layering color

[Celene]

Some advice would be greatly appreciated! - I started out with a red opal and layered different colors of transparent design pieces. I took it to a full fuse, which I think was a mistake, but I wanted a smooth finish. I was disappointed and a little surprised to find that the red had soaked up all the color of my design pieces. Do I HAVE to use opal pieces on an opal background? Or is there a way to make transparent pieces still look transparent and keep their vibrant colors, on an opal background? How can I try this again and keep the colors in my detail, true? I'm thinking about layering more detail pieces on top of this, but now I'm starting out with an even darker color so I don't know how to go about it. Any ideas? Thanks! Celene

[Brad Walker]

Try using transparent on white. That will give you opacity and also allow the transparent pieces to keep their colors while giving a sense of depth.

[Celene]

Thank you. Should I have used frit instead of cut pieces so I could layer white underneath? I really wanted the red background.

[Morganica]

Couple ways you can do this that might be easier: Trace the outline of your pieces on the dark opal, then remove the pieces and sift plain white opal powder on the red. Use a paintbrush to move the white powder off the areas that should remain red. I prefer prefiring to a near-flat fuse at that point, to ensure I don't get a lot of white moving around under the pieces. (If your red is a single layer, cut it bigger than the desired final size, because it will pull in during firing. Once it's fired, cut it to size.)

If you've got a lot of pieces the sift-and-brush thing is a pain in the neck, so the other way to do this is to prefuse the pieces you're going to cut out while they're still in sheet form. Lay them down bottom-side up, sift white powder over them, and fire. Then cut out what you want--it will be flashed white on the underside, so that the color will come through.

I'm not much good at enamels and glasspaints, but using them to coat the underside would be another way.

[Celene]

Thank you SO much for sharing your knowledge!!! I'm going to try it.