Rarely do potters use conventional paints to achieve extra colorful effects on their clay pottery creations. Typically, potters “paint” their creations using underglazes, slips, and oxide stains made of various ceramic materials. When burned to maturity, all of them bond to the clay body, making them less prone to wear or flake off than paint. However, certain conventional paint materials may be employed when a ceramic item is not meant for utilitarian usages, such as when it is intended to be displayed in art.
Clay pottery may be painted in a variety of ways, including:
Slips
Clay pottery may also be colored before firing by dipping it in a slip, which is a liquid suspension of clay particles in water. Both white slips and colorful slips with oxide tinting are acceptable. When throwing other pieces, some potters keep the slips that are left behind. Greenware that is damp works well with slips.
The following are three benefits of utilizing slips:
Errors are considerably simpler to completely erase.
The shrinkage of the clay is better matched by slip painting, which reduces the risk of heavier coatings coming off during drying or fire.
Because the slip painting and the pot it is on our bisque together, you may use underglazes (or other engobes) to add more color to enhance the visual impact or better define the picture.
Underglazes
If you use an underglaze that is thin enough and contains enough colorant to limit fading, you may create effects on ceramics that are reminiscent of watercolor paintings. When trying to achieve wash effects, AMACO’s semi-moist underglaze pans perform far better than liquid underglazes since they are much simpler to manipulate.
Use liquid underglaze and a much heavier, “painterly” technique to apply considerably more underglaze to the clay surface for results that are more akin to acrylic painting. It is recommended to work in layers when applying liquid underglazes since many of them do not reach their peak strength until three coats have been applied to the clay surface.
Be ready: Even though you can not see the top layers before firing, dark colors will seep through them.
Oxide Stains
Oxide stains are excellent for producing large, colorful areas as well as flowing lines in paintings. You may also utilize commercially available stains, which are often made with fritted material that makes them both more manageable and chemically stable. Alternately, stains may simply be made by combining earth oxides with water, but with these, you will need to know exactly what glaze goes over it. Depending on the other components in the glaze, certain oxides are temperamental and will drastically alter their color. For instance, whereas chrome oxide is often thought of as a green colorant, tin in the glaze may cause it to become pink.
Glazes
Ceramics have been painted for many years by potters simply using glazes themselves. This comprises painting distinct sections with numerous glazes of varied colors as well as glaze-on-glaze painting, as seen in the majolica traditions.
The glaze is more prone to flow as it melts during the fire, which is one issue with this process. As a result, designs may droop, lose their edge definition, or even entirely blend into an underlying glaze.
Fingernail polish or acrylic paint
You are no longer constrained to painting pottery using ceramic materials when it does not need to be practical. Potters may and often do decorate non-functional pottery with a wide range of other conventional colors. But if the completed product becomes wet or is meant for long-term outdoor usage, be mindful that these non-ceramic choices are likely to flake or peel off. One medium where artists regularly utilize traditional paints is ceramic sculptures intended to serve as exhibition art.
For this style of painting, two non-ceramic materials may be extremely helpful. The most popular kind of paint is acrylic, although fingernail polish may also provide good effects. Both of these substances have the benefit of being non-water soluble after drying, unlike conventional paints.
In addition to being ineffective, applying fingernail polish or acrylic paint to clay surfaces will visibly flatten the surface and harm it. It might be challenging to adequately visually incorporate these elements with the clay.
