Screen Printing Reusche paints

[cemoore]

I've been reading the thread on airbrushing techniques and wondering if anyone has any specific experience they can share on the subject of screen printing using Reusche traditional stainer paints. I am using their lead/cadmium free paints and prefer as little as possible scrubbing of the dry paint or airbrushing particles into the air. I just don't want to get into that hazard on a long-term basis. My interest is in screen printing, a technique I have also never practiced in other mediums but understand from readings what the components and principles are. I have been so far able to successfully use the Reusche paints with tracing and matting. I prefer to trace with pen and clove oil which allows me to go scrub-less. With matting, I am using water and gum arabic which seems just fine. My specific question is for screen printing purposes, what medium(s) have been used successfully by anyone out there? Any advice on this subject as I venture into this would be most helpful.

[Nelson Tan]

Hello,

I have been researching on screen printing glass colors also. Found out that glass colors in paste form is used in screen printing. Versicolor by Ferro sells them but Wanda is out on vacation. Versicolor has many versions for glass. Ask what is suitable for your substrate.

Ms. Wanda McDowell is mentioned in the board several times as the contact person in Ferro.

Hope this helps.

Nelson

[Bert Weiss]

Hello,

I have been researching on screen printing glass colors also. Found out that glass colors in paste form is used in screen printing. Versicolor by Ferro sells them but Wanda is out on vacation. Versicolor has many versions for glass. Ask what is suitable for your substrate.

Ms. Wanda McDowell is mentioned in the board several times as the contact person in Ferro.

Hope this helps.

Nelson

Nelson

Ferro has offices all over the world. I'm suprised that you would buy in the USA. Wanda is always helpful to me.

[Bert Weiss]

I've been reading the thread on airbrushing techniques and wondering if anyone has any specific experience they can share on the subject of screen printing using Reusche traditional stainer paints. I am using their lead/cadmium free paints and prefer as little as possible scrubbing of the dry paint or airbrushing particles into the air. I just don't want to get into that hazard on a long-term basis. My interest is in screen printing, a technique I have also never practiced in other mediums but understand from readings what the components and principles are. I have been so far able to successfully use the Reusche paints with tracing and matting. I prefer to trace with pen and clove oil which allows me to go scrub-less. With matting, I am using water and gum arabic which seems just fine. My specific question is for screen printing purposes, what medium(s) have been used successfully by anyone out there? Any advice on this subject as I venture into this would be most helpful.

Cahearn

Here is the catch with screen printing enamels. You can use easy to make and clean, water cleanup screens, and use the squeegee oil medium. This is a pine oil based medium and it stinks.

I prefer to use a solvent cleanup screen and water miscable medium to mix the enamels with. I take the screens to a screen printing shop and pay them to shoot the screens and clean them up.

To print on glass, you need a piece of glass on both sides of your printing glass to support the squeegee. You load the screen up with a pull not contacting anything and then make your good pull on the glass. If you carefully dry the inks, you can overprint. This is tricky.

My friend Nancy Oneil has made a career printing stencil black on glass and making large leaded glass murals.

[cemoore]

Thanks all for your replies. At this time I would like to stick with the Reusche products I am getting comfortable using. I may start out with the squeegee oil first approach mentioned by Bert. Stinky I can handle; airborne and toxic I'd like to avoid. I have seen the squeegee oil at Reusche. If I graduate to the solvent cleanup system, what is the 'water miscable medium' specifically referred to and where would I buy it? Also, when you say you need glass support on both sides of the printing glass I am assuming you mean to the left and right of the printing glass on the same plane.

-- Cathy Ahearn

[Ron Coleman]

Here's my setup for screen printing on glass. I use Ulano screen films and Paradise paints. You can use the water based mediums on water based films if you don't have a bunch of images to screen. Just be careful with cleanup.

Thompson Enamel sells a water based acrylic medium (A-13) that works very well. They also have a new acrylic screen printing medium (A-14), but I haven't tried it.

http://thompsonenamel.com/products/supp ... rials3.htm

Check the archives.

Simple cardboard strips can be used to locate your glass too.

Ron

[Tom White]

Ron, your setup looks much like the one I use to produce ceramic decals using Versa Color oil based paints from Amaco. One thing I cannot tell from your picture is if your screen is supported just above the glass surface or if it is in contact with the glass. Instead of Ulano film I use Hunt Speedball emulsion, no darkroom needed.

Best wishes,
Tom in Texas

[Bert Weiss]

Thanks all for your replies. At this time I would like to stick with the Reusche products I am getting comfortable using. I may start out with the squeegee oil first approach mentioned by Bert. Stinky I can handle; airborne and toxic I'd like to avoid. I have seen the squeegee oil at Reusche. If I graduate to the solvent cleanup system, what is the 'water miscable medium' specifically referred to and where would I buy it? Also, when you say you need glass support on both sides of the printing glass I am assuming you mean to the left and right of the printing glass on the same plane.

-- Cathy Ahearn

Cathy

There are lots of usable water mixable mediums. Ask Reusche for advice on which they like. Everybody selling mediums these days has a few.

Tom

I used the Versa color enamels from Aamaco once. I thought that they were the most expensive enamels I had ever seen. Mixing your own colors is well worth the effort. As Nelson said you can also buy pasted enamels from Reushce or Ferro.

The paste is enamel mixed to a thick consistency suitable for screen printing or thinnable for painting or spraying. They use a 3 roll mill to mix the paste. It is by far the best tool for mixing enamels ($3000). On the other hand my $15 Braun hand blender is pretty good too.

BTW Versacolor and Veriscolor are completely different procucts from 2 different companies.

[Ron Coleman]

Ron, your setup looks much like the one I use to produce ceramic decals using Versa Color oil based paints from Amaco. One thing I cannot tell from your picture is if your screen is supported just above the glass surface or if it is in contact with the glass. Instead of Ulano film I use Hunt Speedball emulsion, no darkroom needed.

Best wishes,
Tom in Texas

There is a space Tom, about 3/16 inch. The cardstock and paper towel in the foreground space the screen and add a little spring-back.

I've found if the screen rests on the glass there is a good chance of smears.

Ron

[Val]

Cahearn, here's a link you might find interesting

http://www.currys.com/knowledge/screenprintinginfo.htm

Val

[Tom White]

Thanks, Ron. I thought it looked like a spacer on the base at the bottom end of the screen but could not tell for sure. I'm not bashful, if I'm not sure I'll ask.

Best wishes,
Tom in Texas

[Nelson Tan]

Hello Bert,

Just got back from a Holiday.

There is a Ferro representative here in Manila but they do not stock anything. No samples to try and no few paste to buy. Frustrating.

Anyway my idea is a lot simpler to apply but very difficult to produce.
I am going to stock a lot of decal paper with glass enamel on it already because glass paste has a shelf life of only six months.

For big float glass panels we can STIK N FYR any number of colors with decal glass enamels. No flying dusts, no lung exposure.
I am talking to a Korean enamel manufacturer but the language barrier and specs are very confusing.

The option of mixing paste myself is becoming more and more appealing.

By the way Bert does Ferro also have transparent glass enamel for float glass? Or do we just thin down the opaque colors to make it transparent? Thanks


Nelson

[Bert Weiss]

Hello Bert,

Just got back from a Holiday.

There is a Ferro representative here in Manila but they do not stock anything. No samples to try and no few paste to buy. Frustrating.

Anyway my idea is a lot simpler to apply but very difficult to produce.
I am going to stock a lot of decal paper with glass enamel on it already because glass paste has a shelf life of only six months.

For big float glass panels we can STIK N FYR any number of colors with decal glass enamels. No flying dusts, no lung exposure.
I am talking to a Korean enamel manufacturer but the language barrier and specs are very confusing.

The option of mixing paste myself is becoming more and more appealing.

By the way Bert does Ferro also have transparent glass enamel for float glass? Or do we just thin down the opaque colors to make it transparent? Thanks


Nelson

Nelson

The decals will work. Ceramic decals hold up to fusing temps. Glass decals don't. The difference is that the ceramic decals sink in and look like colored glass. The glass decals which are fired much cooler look like paint on top of glass.

Ferro does not export the transparent glass enamels to the USA. Manilla could be different. They are manufactured in Germany.

Each color has a different level of opacity. Blue is the most transparent, white the most opaque. I use clear flux to thin out the colors sometimes. A thin application also helps to reduce opacity.Screening or spraying are the best ways to get a thin coating.

I mix my powdered enamels with medium 1544 and keep them in jars. The powder eventually settles to the bottom and gets cakey. I can reconstitrute them and make them work for me. My sister in law who is a fine oil painter, does not get the effects she wants with the reconsitiuted colors, so she mixes everything just in time to use. This strategy allows for infinite shelf life as the enamels and the medium do not seem to change over time when not mixed.

You can actually make your own decals with enamel, decal paper, and decal overcoat. I have bought these from Reusche, but never actually used them. Because the decals are water slide, you have to use oil based mediums.

There are companies that print decals with sophisticated printing machines. You can get some interesting images this way. (collector plates are made with ceramic decals) You can also make one color decal sheets and cut out shapes.

Not premixing your enamels gives you the options to use different mediums. This can work really well for multi-layer paintings. You can overlay water based and oil based enamels ad infinitum. What is difficult is oil over oil or water over water. You have a stroke or 3 before they mess up.


BTW I have heard that there are several people who are afraid to take my painting class because they are not great painters. I am a pretty lousy painter myself, but I have learned to get effects that I like. It gives me many options for creating colored glass from clear cheap float glass, as well as painterly effects.

[cemoore]

Bert --

Off topic, but I noticed your comment about painting classes and I have previously noted your west coast classes on the board. Being from central/eastern Massachusetts I would very interested in classes you may hold in Chatham or New England, although I didn't see mention of on your website. Do you have a posted schedule of classes anywhere?

-- Cathy

[Bert Weiss]

Bert --

Off topic, but I noticed your comment about painting classes and I have previously noted your west coast classes on the board. Being from central/eastern Massachusetts I would very interested in classes you may hold in Chatham or New England, although I didn't see mention of on your website. Do you have a posted schedule of classes anywhere?

-- Cathy

Cathy

I have considered having classes at my studio, but it is crowded and terribly disorganized. Not a great place for several people to work.

Now if somebody wanted to trade cleanup and carpentry for a class, I could probably do it.

So right now the closest East coast class is in DC. I am open to teaching anywhere with enough kiln space and budget to pay me. Email me for more info. I am having discussions about a class in Florida soon, but it is not finalized. We need to find just a bit more kiln space nearby.

[Nelson Tan]

Bert

Thank you very much for the information.

Did not know we can use ceramic enamels, I thought ceramic enamels have a different COE and will not be compatible.

I notice also that glass decals look like painted over on float glass because I have a chance to use beer bottle decals on float glass. I also tried Unique Glass color and it looks like the colors are fused with the float glass. Very smooth when fired maturely.

Bert did you also get the ceramic powder color from Ferro? Or any ceramic powder is good?
Thanks.

Nelson

[Bert Weiss]

Bert

Thank you very much for the information.

Did not know we can use ceramic enamels, I thought ceramic enamels have a different COE and will not be compatible.

I notice also that glass decals look like painted over on float glass because I have a chance to use beer bottle decals on float glass. I also tried Unique Glass color and it looks like the colors are fused with the float glass. Very smooth when fired maturely.

Bert did you also get the ceramic powder color from Ferro? Or any ceramic powder is good?
Thanks.

Nelson

Nelson

All the enamels I buy from Ferro come as powder. You can pay extra and have them paste them with any medium, but then you have the shelf life issue. The reason they are compatible is that the layer of glass is so thin that it can't really do much damage.

Glass enamels are mostly designed to fire in around 1050ºF so that they can be put on glassware and not slump it. Versicolor series has a few different temperature ranges. I use the bending colors which are good at 1250 -1300. The thing is that you can't get a "full flat fuse" at that temp. The enamels that fire hotter, can get hot enough to sink in and look like glass. The only catch is that you have to live with texture on the bottom surface.

[Nelson Tan]

Thank you very much Bert.
Time to experiment. I'am also planning to make a two or three color decals.

Nelson

[cemoore]

I've had some recent small successes screen printing on glass with the Reusche paints. I think implied in the discussion is that this is for the purpose of creating opaque tracing lines. Certainly with the paint mixtures I'm using that is what is created. However, I am wondering if my assumption is true, that this is basically a process strictly for opaque tracing, rather than matting. I'd love to hear someone say I am wrong and they have figured out a way to put a decent-looking matte paint application through a screen onto glass. I think the traditional badger brush strokes used to create a soft matte application would be difficult if not impossible to reproduce. Anyone have any insight into this?

-- Cathy

[Don Burt]

I've had some recent small successes screen printing on glass with the Reusche paints. I think implied in the discussion is that this is for the purpose of creating opaque tracing lines.

I think of silkscreen as being better suited to solid area figure. It can certainly achieve lines of nearly any quality, but I don't think of silkscreen as an ideal technique for linear work.

Certainly with the paint mixtures I'm using that is what is created. However, I am wondering if my assumption is true, that this is basically a process strictly for opaque tracing, rather than matting. .

You can make make nearly any quality of gradation with silkscreen, depending on your application. You would do so with either a halftone approach or by surface manipulation of the pigment after it has dried (or come to think of it, stippling while wet) but I agree, its not best suited for matting-like effects.

I'd love to hear someone say I am wrong and they have figured out a way to put a decent-looking matte paint application through a screen onto glass. I think the traditional badger brush strokes used to create a soft matte application would be difficult if not impossible to reproduce. Anyone have any insight into this?.

I don't know if you can spray a matte through a screen, but you can spray a matte through a stencil. An airbrush is the ideal way to effect a gradated matte. (don't tell my glasspainting heros I said that)