I make hand painted ceramic tiles. Someone asked me if I could paint on glass tile.
I did,but unfortunatelly I did not know the temp,so I just guessed it.It melted.
what would be a good safe starting temp on the glass tiles? Anyone?
Zazzy
Do you have any idea of the composition of the glass? Borosilicate is good to around 800 deg C, while they make some silica specialty glasses such as Vycor that doesn’t soften until around 1500 deg C.
Window glass usually has soda or lime added to make it’s glass transition temperature lower for easier production and forming.
Contact folks at the Moravian Tile Works for further information. When touring the works, I noted they are quite helpful and willing to share data regarding their art.
I want to apologize for the abuse of the apostrophe in my post above. I plead fatigue mixed with single malt and ignorance.
I’m assuming that you don’t know the composition of the glass tiles or have any practical way to find out so you’ll need to experiment a bit.
The obvious starting point would be about 1000 F which is more or less when you first get a dull red color in the kiln. I fire to about 1200 F to slump the glass I use.
I assume you’re using enamels to paint the tiles and so the real question is what is the melting point of the enamels you’re using. You should be able to find that out easily. It is quite possible that their melting point is the same or even higher than the melting point of the glass tile in which case you need to use a different product to paint the glass tiles.
To daffyduck…
You’re right,I don’t know comp. of the glass tile.I suppose the lady at the store could find out from the manufacturer. Holly Mackrel,the staring point,you said about 1000 F? Hell,I’ve fired it to a cone 05,for the glaze I’m using, ( that’s 1886 F ),no wonder it got to be a big lump on the kiln floor. I can see this not going to work too good. By the time the glaze would mature,the glass would be just a big lump. I’ll check into the enamels. Thanx for the info…zazzy