I have a block of aluminum that we could make into a couple cubes. I think it measures roughly 5"x5" by 9.5" long. If we chopped it in half, I think it’d make a couple really nice cubes with plenty of material to make free cubes inside.
Let’s discuss.
Those are a bit more expensive than I’d like to spend. Julie and I were going to test some of the regular acrylic paints to see if they’re wearable.
Let me see if I can find some locally, I might be willing to buy some for us
We have plenty of time to play with acrylics and test them (I already have probably 50+ bisque pendants to play with and I’m making more soon). But I’m also happy to pay for some of the Duncan acrylics, especially if you find a local source.
It looks like American Ceramic supply in Ft Worth has them
If you see a show that does slip cast ceramic, they should have the
I loved the pearl colors, but I am not seen them I may have to see what I still have
and if they are still usable, Aslo I would mix them or even add a little of a bottle arcyrlic
to them to modify the color
One thing to know, acrylic paints can be mixed, tubes, bottles, special formulation and even
latex house paint, It seems that they will have sightly different carriers that work best for different materials
Using a little alter the color doesn t seem to be an issue, I have used them on all ypes of materials
Still strikes me as entirely too much effort for a giveaway.
I do! The bisque provides an excellent surface for paint. For what you’re wanting to do, any of the cheap craft paint brands are fine - apple barrel, Americana, folk art are a few brands I’ve used. Watch the yellows, reds and oranges. In some brands these colors will be more translucent and take multiple coats to get good coverage. In others, the paint consistency is different from rest of the line - more watered down. Craft paints are a pretty cheap way to go and gets you access to all the colors you could want. Some of the colors will come in a larger size too.
Considering what you’re doing this for, the other option is to flip over to student grade/beginner art acrylics. You do not want the tube (heavy body) paint. Stick to the paint that’s already in pourable consistency. This is my recommendation. The color palette is more limited and the price goes up a bit, but the paints are consistent across the line in terms of quality and hue, which means the paints will not be the frustrating factor. They’ll also cover well and the painting experience will be fun (and not frustrating). I’m assuming for this event you’re going to want to limit your color palette anyway to some basic choices.
As far as brands, if you want to stick local I’ve had good luck with Michael’s Artist Loft, knowing it’s meant as a beginner quality material. Crayola makes a student grade acrylic if you want to go with a named brand. I’ve seen some other brands in store as well. It’s far enough out that you can place an order with dickblick.com too. They have their own line of student grade acrylics. It gets some incredibly high ratings among art teachers brand to use if you can.
Which ever acrylic paint you choose though it’s going to rub or chip off a wearable item (apologies if you already know this! I’d feel terrible if I didn’t mention it). You’ll want to hit each pendant with a clear coat after to seal the paint. Krylon and RustOLeum both make spray clear coats that do the job well. They are dry to the touch in 10 to 20 mins and dry to handle in a few hours. Each person will want to reapply a new coat every so often to protect the paint. How often depends on how often they are handling the piece.
CA hasn’t discussed either that I know of…but monoprints are always a hit at our make and takes with work…and possibly something vinyl cut. I suspect embroidery would be too slow
@Cairenn_Day we’ve done make and take jewelry where you flame color one circle (just regular annealing patina) and use those prefab rivets to attach to another shape…maybe sawn maybe punched out. Stamped with logo if you wanna get real fancy. I’d be worried enameling x 500 would be a little expensive since it’s going to be about $1-$2 per person to do it
Ah! So there’s no point in spending a dime extra, since it all rubs off eventually. We’ll buy a can of clear coat, then, and let that be done with it.
Yeah generally I’d say underglaze them but its tour night lol…if you water down the acrylic it stains pretty well and you can skip the clear
Actually, I said the exact opposite and recommended spending the bit extra on the student quality paint so there’s decent paint to work with (paint consistency on hue, translucency, viscosity, paint feel) and you can get a product has a chance of looking nice and bright. The price difference isn’t that much and the end user is just going to get a better experience. If the point of open house is to show case the are are, have a fun project for people to do that will hopefully bring them back later, then really, spend the couple of extra bucks so people can have the best experience possible. The biggest advantage the craft paints have is the sheer number of colors you can get without having to mix them. For this, I’d stick to a limited classic palette of colors anyway. Now I would grab a bunch of cheap metallic craft paints to supplement the basic colors. That should provide a decent pallet for everyone.
This is also a great option if you want to go with a watercolor/ink stain look. It depends on the pieces and if you want to let people to sit and paint or apply washes. It’s certainly the extra cheap way to go. You can even go the route of buying the pan watercolors and using those.
If you’re wanting bright pieces where folks have control of of what they paint and can layer colors, then decent acrylics is the answer. It all depends on the look you’re going for.
I am wondering about using acrylic paint/stain on my modern
fossils, Normally they are done with a stain and fired in a gas
reduction kiln,
Any opinion on going to a low fire clay for single fired items?
I know I would have to not leave it, I would just bring the amount
I needed
If the goal is to get bang for buck I would actually suggest solucryl with their finishing sealer so you aren’t fussing over brushes all night…or really lean in and do marathon demos or even air dry clay to build whatever dyed with marker. The concern is durability of wear. Watercolor would be horrid for that since it’d leech every time you put the oils on. Thick layers of acrylic would be equally bad as they have a tendency to peel…and for the average bear who doesn’t have a clue what they are doing it tends to look cheap and crappy
Someone else will have to chime in on all that (goals, etc), I can only guess (which I will). Seeing how open house is a PR driven event, then the underlying idea is to showcase and promote fired arts. I would think the primary goal is what activity can we do that does that. While cost should be kept in mind, the primary goal should not suffer because we are trying to save a few bucks.
Personally, I love the idea of committee members doing demos. It’s impressive for people to see, low cost and can really showcase the skills in the area. If the person working can also talk and answer questions about their work, the process and the spacess, even better. Project wise, I really like the air dry clay project idea. With the right clay it provides an experience that’s closer to fired ceramics without having to deal with the full firing process. If we go with Amico’s air dried Terra cotta and the right project, then there’s no need to paint. Folks can build something that day, using all the normal clay techniques they would with fired clay, and be able to take it with them.
But! Back the original topic. The student grade acrylic paints will be fine for the pendants. I’m unconcerned about coat thickness using those. On white bisque, it’ll take a single coat, 2 at the most for the lighter colors. If folks are getting fancy and layering colors, that changes things. The bisque does a great job of holding onto the paint too between partial absorption and providing some tooth, so you don’t need any type of primer coat.
With the craft paint because of variability in quality, but mostly because of low pigment ratios in the paint, I’ve had to use as many as 5 coats just to get semi solid coverage. With some colors I never could and had to work my way through several brands and various tints of reds/oranges/yellows until I found ones I was happy with. I’ve long since rekitted my acrylics setup so I have no idea what the exact paints I used were.
I guess that’s what I’m trying to get you to clarify. When you say “craft paint” are you talking exclusively about the Folk Art or are we going all the way down to Rose Art. I suppose at the end of the day it’s irrelevant since I don’t imagine you work in bulk like I do lol…however if you need tips on how to get good coverage with crap paint let me know. There’s a few tricks to making things behave like heavy body even when they aren’t
Well, I’m up for the ones that are $.69 up to about a buck at Walmart. We should probably buy our own, and not sponge from Creative Arts.
I really don’t think it’s worth spending much money on this event. If I had a say in it, I’d say skip the Open House this year. We’re cramped for space. We’re cramped for teachers in the things folks want to know (or THINK they want to know). (And by we, I mean the Makerspace.) The plan to take over next door fell through (they’re staying). Encouraging folks who only have maybe a quarter of a clue at best doesn’t serve any good purpose that I can see. We just get more work for folks who aren’t invested and leave. So – a nice cheap giveaway should be fine.
I’ve done the all-day demo the last 2 years. Pretty much like my normal Thursday night gig – hang out, work on my projects, chat with folks with questions. I know I chatted with folks the first year. Last year the same. Toward the end of the day 2 teenage girls showed up thinking they were going to learn to throw. That’s it. I’d rather not invest money in the Open House. Encourage people to sign up for our classes. Having classes on the schedule that we can point to would be a better investment of our time. After all, if they require instant gratification, they’re going to bomb as Makerspace members. You need huge quantities of patience to fit into our culture. (I would be doing the all-day thing, but I’ve got a job that weekend.) And, frankly, if they’re not willing to invest either time or money (dues), we’re better off without them.
Depends on how many colors you want, Let me dig out my bag or
bottle acrylics first, I am not using them so if they get used usp, not problem
Understood. Next time we run into each other let’s look at my work suppliers. They’re bigger amounts per package but generally cheaper than the little bottles…and we may be able to order a ton of ink pads for pennies each.
Agreed. Lol this isn’t the place for the impatient