Flooding

Three tips if you want to stop your paint from blistering in the kiln

Williams & Byrne

Sep 24, 2016

By 'flooding' I mean:

The darkest paint of all.
The paint you use for silhouettes and blocking around your trace lines and to the edge of the glass.

Good flooding is essential. The problem is:

Flooding easily bubbles and blisters in the kiln.

So how do you avoid those horrible blisters which wreck your work?

3 tips to avoid blisters

After the clip, we'll focus on 3 tips to stop your flooded paint from blistering when you fire it in the kiln. See if you can spot what they are:

The first point is:

1. Work fast

Work fast. You must work fast because you don't want the paint to dry on you. If your paint doesn't flow, it'll very likely blister when you fire it in the kiln:

Next ...

2. Mix often

In fact, mix your paint each time you load your brush:

The reason you mix often is, your paint is always separating into its constituent elements - water, gum Arabic and pigment. If the gum is thick in one part, thin in another, your paint will very likely blister.

Finally for today ...

3. Spread far

You should spread the paint as far as you can. This isn't meanness. It's because the paint mustn't be any thicker than it needs to be to block the passing light. If your paint's too thick, it'll very likely blister:

So spread, spread, spread. Spread it till you see the occasional flicker of clear glass through your paint.

Flooding isn't difficult. But it's very unlike tracing.