Linda Suter on thu 20 jun 02
Greetings,
I want to apply and fire gold luster to my porcelain pieces. I understand
that gold luster fumes can be toxic, and would like to know what is in the
luster and what kind of respirator to use. I will be applying it outside my
studio, and will use gloves and other protection, but before I begin I would
like to use the proper respirator cartridge. I have called the shop where I
bought the gold luster and they cannot provide this information to me and
even argued that gold luster is quite safe.
Thanks,
Linda Suter
Mercy Langford on thu 20 jun 02
hi linda- in my experience with lusters on and off for 15 years they
dilute/melt the gold with some form of chemicals and combine it with
varnish/oil to make it adhere to the piece. What I do is apply the gold in a
ventilated room- i choose away from the studio because of cleanliness needed
for lusters. The firing is where the fumes are and again proper ventilation
is key. As far respirator or gloves I only use it for dry clay work but not
for gold. Just a personal choice. When I'm applying gold the smell is very
potent and overtakes the whole room so my thinking is ventilating the whole
room. When it's firing I stay away except for monitoring. Hope this helps-
Mercy
Snail Scott on fri 21 jun 02
At 12:47 PM 6/20/02 EDT, you wrote:
>Greetings,
>I want to apply and fire gold luster to my porcelain pieces. I understand
>that gold luster fumes can be toxic, and would like to know what is in the
>luster and what kind of respirator to use.
Use one rated for organic vapors. These usually
have the lime-green color-coding. Many hardware
stores don't stock these, but only the 'chemical
fume'-type ones, with the purple coding. These
aren't adequate, IMHO, so don't let them talk
you into it. Go to a specialty supply house if
you have to. Luster vapors are really evil!
-Snail
John Baymore on sun 23 jun 02
...... the gold with some form of chemicals and combine it with
varnish/oil to make it adhere to the piece. What I do is apply the gold =
in
a
ventilated room................. The firing is where the fumes are
and again =
proper ventilation is key. As far respirator or gloves I only use it for=
dry clay work but not
for gold. Just a personal choice. When I'm applying gold the smell is ve=
ry
potent and overtakes the whole room so my thinking is ventilating the who=
le
room. When it's firing I stay away except for monitoring.
Hi.
The carriers for the lusters are not what you want to be breathing very
much of or very often. Do a little research..... and it'll take some
digging to find out exactly WHAT is in the carrier of the particular
product you are using........ been there done that. Hit brick walls
below).
"Adequate ventilation" is the term that often crops up on things like
instructions that come with materials and on MSDS's. What this REALLY
means is that the ventilation needs to be adequate to bring the level of
contaminant into complaince with any published legal standards..... which=
you can think of as pretty much OSHA standards here in the USA. "Adequat=
e
ventilation" in most cases is not simply having an open window with a fan=
in it or working outside. In fact, in the case of many materials it
involves local pickup...... a slot hood or the like right behind the piec=
e
that you are working on and also behind the open container of the materia=
l.
And without the availability of actual air testing.... you don't know if
your vent is actually working correctly.
Once stuff gets into the general room air.... it is difficult to control.=
A dust respriator is useless for the stuff that evaporates from lusters. =
Get the right cartridge. To get the right cartridge and the right mask..=
.
you need to know two things ...... what it is that is IN the material tha=
t
you need to protect yourself from....and the actual concentration that yo=
u
will be exposed to. Both are hard to determine outside a more industrial=
setting (read that as having $ resources available).
Lacking the above definitive information....... be very careful.
Many, many years ago....... I was doing some technical glaze development
consulting work about 1 day per week for a well known limited production
archetectural ceramics firm. In the small plant (more like a large
handcraft studio) where I was doing the testing work they were also
applying carrier based overglaze enamels (china paints) and gold lusters =
by
hand. I was working with carrier based mid-range and high-fire glazes fo=
r
applying to viterous sinks, tiles, bathtubs, and toilets. I was working
with what SHOULD have been appropriate personal protective equipment and
working in a commercial grade spray booth (with the filters pressure drop=
monitored and changed as needed). STRONG local ventilation was used for
what I was doing. Whenever I was handling the stuff... I had the
respirator on. (yes...fit tested.) Open containers were in the spray
booth....etc. And so on.
However..... in the general studio area.... there were glazed wares dryin=
g
waiting to be fired that were evaporating small amounts of the carrier in=
to
the general environment..... that somehow no one ever really thought all
that much about. So the general level of "crap" in the air was higher th=
an
it should have been..... coming from diffuse distributed sources. And
being dragged with the makeup air right through the breathing zone when
working in front of such devices as a spreay booth .
BTW..... your nose becomes accustomed to a particular smell....... and yo=
u
don't notice it anymore....... until you leave the area and then come bac=
k
and say "WOW..... I didn't smell that before. The vent must have stopped=
working correctly". What actually stopped working was you nose .
=
Making a long story short...... I got sick after about 9 months of this
work. Sick enough that I stopped the project cold. =
My Dr's. wanted to know WHAT exactly was in the blend of solvents and
dryers that was in the "carrier". That resulted in a lot of research tha=
t
sort of dead ended with "proprietary secrets" and discussions of lawyers.=
=
We got generalities....but no tight specifics. If we wanted to spend a l=
ot
of time and money...... we probably could have eventually found out.
=
After a lot of various medical tests..... final diagnosis was chemically
induced cardiac arrythmia. Diagnosis by exclusion..... they ruled out
anything else that could have caused it. Only thing that fit the
circumstances of the sudden onset of the problem. Could it be wrong.....=
.
of course. Is that likely......not really. After being away from
exposure for about a year..... it pretty much went away on it's own. =
(Thank goodness!)
Make your own conclusions. (Is the glass half full or half empty? )
Yes..... I was exposed to a higher level than someone who lusters one pie=
ce
a year in their studio. But please be careful with that stuff. =
Particularly if you don't plan on investing in good ventilation equipment=
.
Best,
..............................john
John Baymore
River Bend Pottery
22 Riverbend Way
Wilton, NH 03086 USA
603-654-2752 (s)
800-900-1110 (s)
JohnBaymore.com
JBaymore@compuserve.com
"DATES CHANGED: Earth, Water, and Fire Noborigama Woodfiring Workshop =
August 23 - September 1, 2002"
| |
|
