pottery on thu 15 aug 96
I would like to make trivets out of terra cotta as a fund raising
project to save our train depot. They would be decorative as well as
functional as a trivet. I would like to stain them so the words on the
tile would be darker. I imagine I could use red iron oxide to stain,
but how can I seal them to keep the r.i.o. on the tile? Or should I
be using something other than r.i.o. I would like to once fire them.
but I don't want to glaze them. I would like to keep the cost as low
as possible for this project. Does anyone have any experience with
sealants that can be put on, after the tile is fired? Polyurethane,
Thompson's water sealant, oil lamp sealer, ect...? Any suggestions
would be greatly appreciated. Thank you. Tama
Vince Pitelka on fri 16 aug 96
At 08:20 PM 8/15/96 -0400, you wrote:
>----------------------------Original message----------------------------
>I would like to make trivets out of terra cotta as a fund raising
>project to save our train depot. They would be decorative as well as
>functional as a trivet. I would like to stain them so the words on the
>tile would be darker. I imagine I could use red iron oxide to stain,
>but how can I seal them to keep the r.i.o. on the tile? Polyurethane,
>Thompson's water sealant, oil lamp sealer, ect...?
Tama -
I would not recommend that you use any organic sealers on a trivit, since it
will be used on the stove and may well be placed in the oven. Normally a
terracotta item which is not going to be used for serving food would not
have to be glazed or sealed at all, but you are right that you need to seal
the RIO in place. Without a glaze or sealant it will still be powdery after
a low-firing. I am not sure why you want to singlefire these trivets, but
if you do, it will be much more difficult to get satisfactory results with
the RIO. Normally, to bring out texture or relief, one would brush or
sponge on the RIO mixture, and then sponge the excess off the high spots.
If you do that with greenware you may end up with a mess, depending on the
density of the claybody and how fast you work. Try it. If it works that
far, then just spray or dip a thin coat of Gerstley borate or 3134 frit and
fire the trivets to ^04. If it were me I would just go ahead and bisque
them first, as the application of RIO would be so much more satisfactory.
- Vince
Vince Pitelka - vpitelka@Dekalb.Net
Phone - home 615/597-5376, work 615/597-6801
Appalachian Center for Crafts, Smithville TN 37166
Nan Dufresne on sat 17 aug 96
>----------------------------Original message----------------------------
>I would like to make trivets out of terra cotta as a fund raising
>project to save our train depot.
>
>Tama, I have used Thompson's Sealer successfully for children's bisqued
projects with good success. It is cheaper than polyurethane and supposedly
keeps outdoor projects water proof.
Nan in Northeast WI
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