Rita on wed 31 jan 07
I'm doing a tile mural project w/ 300 elementary students. The piece has to
be able to removed from the exterior wall when the school is remodeled. I
have limited time, resources, and budget.
I'd like to use preglazed tiles, probably 4in x 4in, and have kids paint
over them w/ low fire underglaze. I'll then refire the tiles to fuse the
glaze into the tile's original glaze, probably to cone 06.
Originally, the school wanted a 10ft x 15ft mural. I can't come up with a
way to make such a large piece that can be put up and taken down, even if
done in sections. So I'm opting for making numerous 2ft x 2ft panels and
putting those up on the brick wall.
I have done a mosaic with hand made mid-range stoneware (cone 6) tiles at
another elementary school which have held up well through the summer and
winter so far.
My 3 main questions are:
1. Wouldn't any vitrified tile work? Stoneware or porcelain?
2. Would I affect the integrity of the industrial glaze finish by
refiring w/ underglazes/lowfire glazes on top?
3. Any suggestions on mounting backing that would be weather proof and
be sturdy enough to be removed in a few years and replaced at a later date?
Concrete board? Durock?
Thanks for any info you can provide.
stephani stephenson on wed 31 jan 07
Rita
as usual ,advice is to test test tst any tile you are
considering using
some lowfire clay tiles will not refire well without
cracking... others which appear to be clay may nor be
clay at all, i.e open the kiln to find little mounds
of powder...
that said , a lot of commercial glazed tile works
just fine and can be overglazed, though you will have
to experiment to find the right overglaze that will
give you what you want.. and alert you to problems
such as bubbling, crawling, crazing ,not enough melt
or to much melt
another often overlooked tile is quarry tile...true it
is usually of a dark color and so does not give you
the white 'canvas' you may want, but quarry tile is a
durable, weather proof tile quite good in the outdoors
look for the ASTM rating on any commercial tile you
buy to see if you can get any clues as to it's rated
uses.
you don't say where you live or the exposure to the
elements the mural will have, will it be shielded from
direct weather by an overhang, etc.?
finally as to panels..hardibacker comes in sheets that
are 3 ft by 5 ft
and generally is sold in 1/4 inch and 1/2 inch
thicknesses...
the hardibacker is light, strong and flexible though
would probably need to be reinforced if you used full
panels... the thing that i think would suffer the most
in transport, hanging, removal etc would be the
grouting......
if you go with 2 ft by 2 ft panels though, it would be
much easier
hardibacker can be cut, then snapped easily with a
drywall board cutter or utility knife.
it is a very odd request to have you put it up then
take it down...
there are various ways to hang panels but depends
on your substrate and the size...you can support
panels by framing them and attaching framing to the
wall, a piece of angel iron bottom and top or a
wooden frame, especially if temporary
or you can drill and run cable though the hardibacker,
sink some masonary bolts into the wall ...i think
you'll want to frame though to make sure nothing will
come down.....
the other thing you can do is drill holes in
hardibaker, enough to distrubute weight... mount onto
wall , then cover drilled areas with 'key ' tiles that
are set with a flexible sealant/mortar. later, the
key tiles can be removed and the piece unbolted from
the wall.
etc...
hanging the 10 by 15 ft piece temporarily sounds
like more work than it may be worth.. for a large
mural.what a headache!
was the timeline? 2 years?
I'd be tempted to wait till they can have it
permanently installed and done right the first time,
even though i know every one of those 300 kids and
parents will wnt to see the tile right now!
good luck!
Stephani Stephenson
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Janet Starr on thu 1 feb 07
Rita
1. Wouldn't any vitrified tile work? Stoneware or porcelain?
Yes
2. Would I affect the integrity of the industrial glaze finish by
refiring w/ underglazes/lowfire glazes on top?
I would suggest using lowfire glazes on top, not underglazes. Otherwise you
would have to put clear glaze over and fire again. The problem with working
on a glazed tile vs. bisque tile with elementary school students is that the
glazes take a long time to dry and adjacent colors can run together. I
tried this with my son's kindergarten class many years ago with bisque tile
and then put clear on top myself. It was so much work and such a mess that
I never wanted to to that again. So, your gigantic project may be alot of
work. You need to refire a test tile to see if the surface of the glaze
changes. Some gloss glazes go matt.
3. Any suggestions on mounting backing that would be weather proof and
be sturdy enough to be removed in a few years and replaced at a later date?
Concrete board? Durock?
I think you better ask a tile store or contractor. I have had some problems
with outside installations.
Janet
--
Janet Starr
www.craftsmantiles.com
www.featuretile.com
featuretile@gmail.com
Sandy Fenstermacher on fri 2 feb 07
I would highly reccomend contacting Katia Mcguirk @ Katia Mcguirk Tile Co. in doylestown PA. She has done probably over 50 tile murlas with elementary schools, and other organizations like retirement homes. I worked with her for a year, and in that year alone I worked on 6 different murals in schools. She is a wealth of knowledge on the subject : )
Her website it www.KatiaTiles.com and you can e-mail her from there!
Hope that helps!
Sandy
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TLC on fri 2 feb 07
I have used inexpensive white glazed bathroom wall tiles with Stroke and
Coats and the result is nice but very abstract and you could see every
brush stroke. (I will send you a picture of my sandcastle mural if you are
interested)
If you use bisque tiles the easiest and nicest way is to paint them in the
majolica style : 3 coats opaque white gloss or matt glaze and then one
coat of stoke and coat glaze colors painted directly on top of the unfired
white glaze. The white glaze dries in seconds and so do the colors.. they
do not move around when fired so what you see is what you get. It's Cone
06 firing. No clear glaze required this way.
Laser decals with the kids pictures could be used in addition if you don't
mind the the extra firing step. Creative Images by Mayco is a good kit to
use for this and you can fire it up cone 06 so you could load the kiln
with both glazed and decal-ed pieces all at once.
TLC
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