Elemental Birds

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Last Updated: Tuesday, 30 April 2013 15:04

1. Begin with properly fired shelf cone 04 bisque.  Moisten a clean sponge and wipe bisque to remove any dust.
2. Using a CB-604 #4 Soft Fan, apply 3-4 coats of EL-110 Mudslide to only the portions of the bird listed: Head, back and sides under the wings and tail. Omit the beak, eyes, chest, tail and wings. You can slightly go over these areas somewhat by feathering the color out to help blend the colors in the painting process. That means you can apply one coat over part of the portions of these omitted areas that are next to the ones being painted. I suggest no color under the chest area though.
3. Put out some EL-112 Tornado Sky onto a tile to let it air thicken. Using an old toothbrush or a Tuffy™ Sponge stipple the Tornado sky over the Mudslide. You want to see little beads of color over the Mudslide. Concentrate more of the color around the wings, tail and brow of the eye.
4. Using a CB-604 #4 Soft Fan, apply 3-4 coats of EL-123 Patina to the wings and tail.
5. Using the CB-604 #4 Soft Fan loaded with water tipped (1/4 or side loaded) with EL-137 Black Adventurine to shade the edges of the tail and wings. Apply more color to the end of the wings and tips of the tail. Using this brush in this way should give you a concentration of color along the painted edge fading out to nothing over the EL-123 Patina color.
6. Place some PC-601 White Cascade onto a tile to air thicken. Using the toothbrush or a Tuffy™ Sponge.
7. Sponge again now loaded with PC-601 White Cascade to stipple glaze onto the top of the head/crown area of the birds. Let dry.  Apply 1 good coat of EL-116 Blue Stone over the PC-602 White Cascade feathering the glaze down the back of the bird. Feather all edges of the blue areas painted. You can re-apply some more stippled PC-602 White Cascade over the EL-116 Blue Stone to achieve more of speckled blue and white markings on the bird.
8. To the chest of the bird, apply 1 good coat of PC-601 White Cascade overlapping on to the EL-110 Mudslide area around the chest.   While the color is wet, streak in some heavy lines in a haphazardly vertical manner to give the look of some underlying shading to the chest feathers. Let dry.  Apply 2 more coats of the PC-602 White Cascade in an uneven manner over the previous painted chest area.
9. Dry brush some EL-110 Mudslide over the front portions of the wings and tail areas where the colors meet.  This will soften the edge and allow the colors to blend more in the firing.
10. Remove any color on the eyes with a moistened brush.
11. Using a CB-220 #2 Detail Liner, paint in the eyes with 3 coats of SC-15 Tuxedo. Apply 2-3 coats of EL-125 Rare Earth to the beak.  Allow to dry.
12. Stilt and fire the pieces to shelf cone 05/06 with a 5 min hold on the kiln computer’s firing schedule. This will better help in the development of the colors and allow them to blend and mingle in the firing process.

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