DRAFT: This module has unpublished changes.
| Cut stencils | Make as many stencils as there are colours. Cut them from 100% rag vellum. You can wet this paper over and over without loosing its shape |  |
| Anneal | Heat the metal to around 1400 degrees to burn off impurities. Piece should have a light grey film (fire-scale) |  |
| Quench | Drop immediately into cold water. Most of the fire-scale should come off when the piece hits the water |  |
| pickle | A mild acid will remove excess fire-scale. I generally use Sparex - but DO NOT HEAT IT. Heat will affect the metal oxides included in the enamel. |  |
| neutralize | Sprinkle some baking soda on the piece and rinse. Water should sheet off the piece when rinsed. |  |
| Counter-enamel | Begin by sifting counter-enamel on the back of the piece. Fire just to orange peel |  |
| pickle/neutralize | After cooling, dust off the excess fire-scale and place the piece in the pickle again, metal side up. DO NOT QUENCH. |  |
| Sift | Sift a thin layer of flux – just barely enough to cover the pink |  |
| Fire | Fire high to transparency |  |
| Layers | Wet the stencil and set it in place on the flux surface. Use a paper-towel or cloth to remove excess moisture, and paint a SMALL amount of gum binder in the space |  |
| Sift a thin coat of a transparent colour – just enough to cover the flux |  | |
| Allow the stencil to rest a few moments as the enamel will wick away excess moisture before peeling the stencil off. Choose the colours in order of hardness, hardest colours first |  | |
| Fire | Fire just to sugar consistency |  |
| Continue with the other stencils. Try to keep each firing at sugar fire consistency until you have all the layers in place. Then fire low, just to smoothness |  |  |
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| Final | After a final careful fire you can add black outlines by using Thompson enamel P-1 Over-glaze paint. This should be done in a final lower firing around 1350F |  |
DRAFT: This module has unpublished changes.
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