Erin Hayes on sat 19 may 01
Hi All!
I usually sketch with pastels, and I was wondering if anyone had ever fired
regular pastel onto a piece. I know about underglaze chalks - it seems like
they should sort of be the same thing, doesn't it? The pastels are made of
kaolin and colorants, aren't they?
If anyone has tried this, let me know. I think I'll give it a go and see
what happens with color Conte crayons.
Erin.
Paul Lewing on mon 21 may 01
Hi, Erin.
I would speculate that whether pastels fired in a kiln would work or not
would depend on which color they were. The ones with mineral colorants
would certainly make some kind of mark. Whether it would be the same
color of mark as the pastel or not would depend on which oxide and the
firing conditions. Many of the earth tones are various forms of ocher
or iron oxide, either raw or calcined, and I know for a fact that conte
crayons are red iron oxide and wax. The lady who was one of the Glaze
Doctors this year at NCECA was talking about analysing the conte crayons
on Rembrandt's drawings. Chrome oxide is used to make a lot of the
greens, and I know that Naples yellow is antimony oxide. I think if you
see a raw ceramic oxide (not a manufactured stain) that is a certain
color, the pastel could very well be that oxide. But I'd bet that some
of the colors, especially the very vivid ones, are vegetable colors, and
would burn out. I'd also bet that reduction would kill a lot of the
variety in the colors. Just as in glazes, you might find that all the
shades of blue come out the same cobalt blue, and all the shades of
green come out chrome green. And of course, antimony disappears about
cone 01.
But you've got nothing to lose. My mantra is always "Try it and see".
Let us know what happens.
Paul Lewing, Seattle
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