Monday, July 14, 2014

Stenciling with Real Leaves!

June: I LOVE spring and summer, as everything is in bloom and providing ideas for lots of new projects. I've been having fun using real leaf clusters as stencils for my enameled plates and bowls. The process is simple: fire on the first coat of enamel on the front (whatever color you want to see show through as the leaves) and back. Then spray the front well with a 50/50 Klyr Fire and water mixture, place the leaves where you want them, spray the leaves with the Klyr Fire mixture, and then sift on your second color. Lift the leaves off carefully and you should have a perfect picture of the leaves in the enamel. If a few bits of enamel fall into the pattern, lift them out with a wet, not dripping, paint brush. Let dry and fire as usual. On this plate, I used Thompson 2030 clear as the first coat, then blue and green on the second. 211o Thompson wax yellow, makes a very beautiful gold undercoat also. Obviously, flat leaves work best - I've had good luck with ferns, Nandina, and Yarrow leaves. This works best when the leaves are supple and fresh - dry leaves tend to crumble!

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