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I collect beach glass. Some of my pieces are large, ex., bottom of bottles. I use the pieces in jewelry and in mobiles. I am wondering if I can paint a beach scene on the beach glass and then fire the piece in my kiln according to the directions on the paint?

LAF wrote:I collect beach glass. Some of my pieces are large, ex., bottom of bottles. I use the pieces in jewelry and in mobiles. I am wondering if I can paint a beach scene on the beach glass and then fire the piece in my kiln according to the directions on the paint?

yes

So long as you have a paint that's made to fire in the kiln. Look for glass enamels, such as Sunshine Enamels.

(Disclaimer: we sell Sunshine, so are biased toward them. www.warmglass.org)

Would you not lose the beach glass look at those temps. I sandblast glass ( system 96 ) and depending to what temp I go to I can bring the glass back to clear. Puebo, I think that's the name makes a glass paint that you can cure at 350 degrees. I have never put sea glass in a kiln so I could be wrong here
Bob

bob proulx wrote:Would you not lose the beach glass look at those temps. I sandblast glass ( system 96 ) and depending to what temp I go to I can bring the glass back to clear. Puebo, I think that's the name makes a glass paint that you can cure at 350 degrees. I have never put sea glass in a kiln so I could be wrong here
Bob

Depends on the paint you use and the temperature you fire to. Sunshine can mature around 1350F, which may be too high to retain the beach glass look. But there are other enamels that mature at lower temperatures, as well as traditional stained glass paints. And you're right, there is a paint that is oven cured -- Pebeo makes it -- that would work well. The only issue I can think of with the Pebeo paints is that they don't last as long as the kiln-fired enamels.

Compatibility can also be an issue with true fired-on enamels. You'll need to do some test firing.

Reusche glass stainers' enamels fire at 520ºC to 580ºC. Their colour is intense enough to require only a thin layer that is not affected by the type of glass (and does not affect the glass).
As much of the beach glass is bottle glass and so similar to float glass, these temperatures will not affect the surface of the glass much, if at all.
(2500 - what a chatterbox!)