GOLD, ITS USE AND APPLICATION
by Bonnie Crandall
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| GOLD AS AN EMBELISHMENT AND AS DESIGN
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The use and application of gold, in its different
forms seems to be a great mystery to many.
If one remembers that it is, after all, a luster, it
should take away a great deal of the mystery. Many
decide they don't want to mess with it as it is
expensive and in some cases, improperly used can make
a lovely piece look garish.
To me, it is a bit like framing a picture. The
picture looks imcomplete without a frame, just as a
painted piece of china looks incomplete without some
type of border or edging to enhance it. Gold is the
easy way to achieve this frame.
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| TYPES OF GOLD |
There are two main types of gold. 1. Liquid bright gold, which comes, like luster, in a liquid form and is
applied in much the same manner. The most important
thing to remember is that, like luster, it needs a clean
atmosphere and clean surface to make it look as nice as
it should. Clean brushes, at least to start with, are
very important. It makes little difference which type
brush you use. I find a nice soft brush works the best.
You need not purchase a special brush, although the
little brushes that come with caps on them are really
handy if you don't wish to clean the brush or have it
so very hard when you go to use it the next time.
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| TO CLEAN OR NOT TO CLEAN
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If you do decide to clean your brush between
each use,use a little lavender oil to swish your brush
in followed by alcohol. It is essential that you not
throw out the lavender oil each time or you are wasting
a lot of gold. When you consider the lavender oil too
dirty to use any longer, let it set and reclaim the gold
in the bottom of the container. This can be used for
rims, for flaking etc.
At any rate, this will clean your brush well
enough so that it won't get hard and can be used over
and over. Another technique is simply to wrap the brush
in saran wrap. This won't prevent the brush from
getting hard, but it will keep it clean and the next time
you use it, it will soften in the new liquid bright gold
you are using.
I also like to store my gold brushes separately
from my painting brushes, this assures that I don't
contaminate either the china paints or the brushes for
golds.
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| ROMAN GOLD
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The next category of gold is Roman gold. It
comes in two divisions. Fluxed and unfluxed. Fluxed
is in either paste or a semi liquid state. I have never
been able to afford the paste, so I have no experience
with this and know very little about it.
The fluxed is as I said semi liquid, very thick
and viscous. It must be thinned with a few drops of
gold essence or facilitator. Martha Chalfont (she does
lovely dresden work and teaches at the national level)
teaches that you need to heat your piece of china, making
sure it has been fired before you apply your fluxed gold.
Thin your gold after heating it with a couple of drops of
your essence and stir it well, being sure the gold has
liquified and is not clumped on the bottom of your vial.
It should be about the consistency of heavy cream. Reusche
also recommends that you heat the gold before you use it.
You may use a brush to apply the fluxed gold, a sponge or
your finger for rims. Now when I say making sure it has
been fired before applying the gold, I don't mean to say
you have to fire a blank piece of china, just be sure
any painting has been fired and sanded lightly so you
get the best and smoothest application.
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| RULE OF "UNS"
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Remember the rule of the "UNS" here. Fluxed Roman gold
goes on unfluxed ware. Two Uns together can spell
disaster.
Fluxed goes on unfluxed and unfluxed gold goes on fluxed
ware. ie: fluxed being china that has been painted and
unfluxed being either a border that is unpainted or at
least some portion of your pattern that is bare.
Unfluxed Roman gold also needs to be heated and
applied in the same manner. Even the pats of unfluxed
gold need to be heated. This does two things, it helps
soften the gold on the pat as well as cutting down on
the amount of essence you need to use to make it work
for you. Simply remove the pat from the box, glass
and all and place the glass on your heating surface.
and heat it, adding a few drops of facilitator to make
it liquid so you can work. It too should be about like
thick cream. Too thin won't cover. I would be a little
careful about placing the glass fully on the heater, I
like to place the glass across one corner of my heated
surface so the glass doesn't get too hot.
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| SEMI LIQUID
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Unfluxed semi liquid is done in the same manner
as well. Burnish gold the same.
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| COST |
I think most of us think of Roman gold as being
only in the little pats due to the cost of the stuff.
The higher the gold content, the higher the cost. The
last fluxed gold I purchased was $54.00 for 1/8 ounce.
Pretty expensive stuff, but keep in mind it was 38%
gold whereas the pats are only 22%. Don't ask me
what the remainder of the contents are, I haven't a clue.
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| OTHER METHODS OF APPLICATION
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Gold can also be sponged on ware. I use a little
piece of sponge and wrap it in saran wrap when I finish
the rim of a piece and use it over and over. Saves gold
You can also make a spattered looking design on ware
over your design by sponging it here and there.
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| RECOMMENDED FIRING OF GOLD
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Gold is made to be fired like luster, at 018 or
perhaps 017. Now, before you jump down my throat,
I said it was made to be fired at those temperatures.
I didn't say you couldn't fire at higher temperatures.
If you can make it work for you, fine.
The Roman gold, however, will most likely turn silvery
looking if it is overfired. Ever have that happen? I
have. I fired a lovely piece at 016 and got that silvery
look and had to reapply the gold and refire. The only
exception to the 018 rule my be when you use liquid
bright all over such as inside a cup etc. you may want
to fire it a bit hotter.
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| BLACK SPOTS
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These are most likely to appear if you have some
oil on your piece from your china paints or if your
piece is smudged with finger prints etc. Be very sure
your piece is clean before you apply the gold. A good
practice is to clean the piece with denatured alcohol and
let it dry thoroughly before applying your gold. Dont'
decide at the last minute to touch up the china painting
and then apply gold too. Better to fire between paintings than to have it spoiled with a black spot. I know
of nothing that will remove that spot unless it is
whink and that is very dangerous stuff.
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PURPLE STREAKS OR PLACES
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Purple places on the gold is usually the result
of not enough gold or too little gold content used or
incompatiblity with the ware. Usually, though it is
too thin an application. Recoat and refire. I usually
don't have this problem as I use 22% gold liquid bright.
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USING GOLD FOR DESIGN WORK
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There are a couple of techniques that deliberately use
thin applications of gold to make clouds in the sky as
a background for china painted over fired gold. This
is a lovely effect and not hard to achieve. Try this
effect and see how you like it. Paint your piece with
the all over golding then take some of the gold off
before it dries by streaking through it with your finger
or a brush to remove some of it, in other words, don't
have an even coverage. Make some water as well as
clouds in the sky and fire this at 017. Trace or draw
in a design lightly and paint over it with rich brown
mixed with black. Makes a lovely scenery type painting
Men really like this one. I use a scene with deer in
it eating along side a stream. Lovely! Oh, one more
tip. When you fire gold, it has a lot of oil in it and
will smoke. If your kiln is not vented properly, this
smoke will collect on the gold in a reduction firing
and make a film over it. (Not pretty) leave my kiln lid
propped about 2 or 3 inches for the first two steps,
low and medium, also I take out the peep hole plugs.
After going to high, I put two peep hole plugs back in
(my kiln has three) and lower the lid to about 1" and
finish firing. In fact, I do this for all china firings
I find it makes much cleaner and clearer and nicer looking
pieces than shutting the lid at the time you turn your
kiln to high.
If I have large loads of gold I do them separately.
While I have never had gold become contaminated from
firing with china paints, I know I am pushing my luck
and will some day come up with that very catastrophy.
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| SEPARATE FIRING OF LUSTERS AND GOLDS
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Lusters and golds really should not be fired together.
The golds will contaminate the lusters. Now don't jump
all over me and say it can be done. I didn't say it
couldn't be done, I said shouldn't be done. Lusters,
however do pick up colors from other china paints and
can be fired with those, just be careful how hot. We
used to say to fire lusters at 022 when we were in the
ceramic business. Unless the manufactures have changed
the formulas drastically, I think they still should be
fired at lower temperature, but you are your own guide.
Lots of luck, experiment and try out using the
golds. They are fascinating to china paint over. Or
to first paint under as does Carlos Spina. One of my
husband's most favorite plates is one done like Spina
does with red painted under and fired and gold over
and fired. I did use red resist to block out a portion
of the design as I wanted it to be very clear and gold
and yellow won't work together. Blues, whites, and
greens etc. do very well, but not the red.
I also have a Christmas ornament that I did not make,
but the person making it used Roman gold all over the
ball and then painted a scene over it and it is lovely.
nebraskalassie
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