GD: Wanda Hentges Project #3 Ceramic Tile Art

"Hello everyone. Here we are already on day 3 of my second month as a Guest Designer and today's project was a real learning experience! I've had working on ceramic tiles on my want-to-do-someday list for years and thought one of my posts for PA would be a good time to try it out. I'd always thought that making an alcohol ink background and then stamping and painting on top would be cool. I've seen some beautiful pieces by gg's functional art. I even have one of her coasters of just alcohol art, no painting, that I got years ago at an art get together in Ohio. In preparation of doing this for PA, I even did a tile this summer and it went pretty well. I guess the problems were waiting until I was in the midst of getting ready for an actual post when I was down to the wire in timing (I'm terrible about that, such a deadline person). So come along and I'll share all".

Here are the three tiles I'm sharing today. 

Ceraminc tiles can be found at home improvement stores in various colors and shapes. I happened to score a couple of boxes at a garage sale a few years ago for a few dollars - sweet!!!  These aren't plain white, but have little speckles on them which I think just adds more to the background.

These tiles can be used as coasters or even just set up on easels as art work. I made a Christmas themed one first.  A set of 4 would make a wonderful gift for someone.

The words are from JOFY 27 and the ornament from JOFY 28.  

I stamped with Archival Ink Jet Black. I painted with the colors in the newest JOFY Limited Edition set (Chalk, Turquoise, Slate, Cherry Red) along with Old Gold and Metallic Glaze. I sealed all the tiles with Gloss Glaze. 

The first step when working on the tiles is to be sure they are nice and clean. Since I was using an ornament on the first tile I thought of it hanging in a tree and started with Alcohol Ink colors, Lettuce, Juniper, and Oregano. I used an applicator tool with felt, put drops of each color on the felt and dabbed it onto the tile.

Continuing until there was color everywhere. You will notice that the color spreads out much more than if you were working on glossy paper.

I added the color bottle to my felt and a bit more Juniper and pounced over the tile again.

I also started heating my tile with my heat tool as I worked. This dries the inks faster instead of them spreading way out.

As the tile gets warmer, you can really add the look of texture with light pounces that dry right away.

I let the tile cool completely. When I was playing this summer, what I wanted to figure out was how to have the image without the black lines so I could paint and then stamp the black lines on top without needing to get it lined up exactly right with any lines that still showed after painting. A cool thing with alcohol inks is if you stamp them with Archival Ink and immediately wipe it with a dry towel the ink will come off leaving a white line where it was. So I got a paper towel ready, stamped the ornament and immediately wiped off the ink. You can't hesitate, it has to be right away. It can still be difficult sometimes to see all the lines but it works pretty good.

I then started painting the ornament. I put Turquoise in the large areas and Slate in the vertical lines. I wanted the diamonds to be red but red is a translucent color so I painted with Chalk first and then put red over it. I was already busy doing this when it occurred to me that I could have painted the whole area Chalk and painted in the red after I'd stamped with black. Since the red is translucent, the lines would have been fine!!!  

I finished the red and then added Chalk in the rest of the areas and at the top. Any spots not painted exact can be touched up after stamping with black.

To stamp the ornament again you can either eyeball it or use a stamp positioner, whichever you prefer. The one I did this summer I eyeballed but this one I decided to use the stamp positioner.  As you can see I am off a bit with my center painting. I did go back and touch up some areas.  

As I was touching up the Red and Chalk paints, I thought "I should try stamping with Chalk paint and that might be easier to follow when painting". So that's what I did for Deck the Halls.

I painted Deck and Halls with Chalk.

I stamped the image with Jet Black and then added some Cherry Red to the letters (forgot to take that picture but you can see it in the final picture).

I thought a little metallic shine might be nice on the Turquoise so watered down some Metallic Glaze and went over those areas. I noticed as I did this that the blue seemed to want to bubble a little, which I thought was really weird (more about that later). It was like it was almost wanting to lift off the tile. So I quickly finished with the Glaze and dried it pressing down on the bubbly areas and it mostly laid flat again.

Another thing that I noticed as I was painting was that some of the color from the alcohol inks seemed to be seeping up through the acrylic paint. This really surprised me. I hadn't noticed it so much on the tile I did this summer, I thought I just wasn't getting it all covered but now I believe it too was bleeding up a little.

I painted the edge with Old Gold bringing it around onto the top a bit, sponging it so that it faded into the green.

I also painted a narrow area around the edge of the back.

When the paint was completely dry, I sealed the tile with Gloss Glaze. I used a brush and didn't worry about brush lines but instead gave the front a canvas look by brushing the glaze in straight lines horizontally, letting it dry, then adding another coat brushing vertically, letting it dry, and repeating one more coat horizontal and then vertical. After the glaze was completely dry I glued black felt to the bottom.

For the second tile I wondered how it would work to just start with a base of paint, no alcohol inks.  It looks completely different and you could certainly do a lot more than I did for this tile but sometimes a cleaner look can be nice. You do need to be careful as you work because the paint can scrape off but once it's sealed, it holds well.

I started by sponging Snowflake over the whole top and letting it dry completely. I stamped the flower image and the word Laugh from JOFY 25 using Archival Ink Jet Black and dried it.  The green is a mix of Hey Pesto, Limelight and Hyde Park and then after painting them all I added a little more Hyde Park and painted some darker areas. The flowers and laugh are painted with Beach Hut and then I also added some Inky Pool to the flowers.

Next I used a finger dauber to lightly add Sherbet to the background. (Yes, you do see some in the lower right corner on the above picture. I started and then thought, I need a picture first). 

I finished it by splattering watered down Turquoise over the tile, drying it, and doing the edges with old gold in the same way as the first tile. Again I have 4 coats of Gloss Glaze and black felt on the back.

The 3rd tile. Fun!!!  It got a little busy looking and there were many problems that I'll explain as I go along but overall I think this is my favorite!!!  

Instead of using felt to apply alcohol ink I just dripped it on. I did heat the tile as I dripped the ink to keep it from spreading too much. First I dripped on Mountain Rose by shaking the bottle over the tile.

Next I added Raspberry.

Finally some citrus.

I then added some more controlled drops by touching the tip to the tile instead of shaking the bottle over the tile.

Then I thought that since the ink seemed to be bleeding up when I added paint that I should try sealing it before I painted. My first thought was gel medium since we use that a lot in mixed media. I started to sponge some on the tile and what a mess, I was rubbing color everywhere. I went right to the sink and scrubbed it all off. I didn't even think to take a picture first.  Looking back while I'm typing this out, I should have known... paint is acrylic, gel medium is acrylic - where was my brain.

So I started over and had a tile that looked like this. I still wanted to try sealing first and I hadn't noticed any trouble with the Gloss Glaze so I thought "I'll try the Matte Glaze". I did get some movement of color but not nearly as bad, probably because it's thinner to begin with and doesn't require as much brushing. I also thought maybe I hadn't let the tile sit and cool long enough, it was still slightly warm. Again I forgot to take a picture but I did actually use this tile for the finished project and you can see just a bit of smearing in the background on the next picture with the flowers. I took another tile and did the same background again and thought I'd try the Gloss Glaze. I let it cool completely and brushed on the Gloss Glaze. Again I got just a little smearing of color. I suppose it's possible that I did on the first tile also but didn't notice it because I hadn't left any white spots although I didn't notice any color on my brush. It might also be that letting it sit longer helps too. I think the first tile had sat overnight before I glazed it.  

Anyway I decided to use the tile I had the Matte Glaze on. I stenciled 3 flowers first with Snowflake and dried them.  Then I stenciled color on top. I used Cheesecake in the center area of all the flowers. On one flower I used Orchid, on another I used Bora Bora, and on the third I used a mix of Autumn Fire and Caramel, dried it, and added a bit more Autumn Fire on top.  

I stamped the matching image from JOFY25 over each flower with Jet Black. To help the flower to pop from the background I drew around the petals with a Sharpie paint marker, extra fine white. I stenciled the word bloom with Little Black Dress, dried it, and did another layer. I thought the black would jump up from all the color but it didn't so much, so I started to add white highlights with the Sharpie and then decided to just put the stencil back on and draw around the edges with the Sharpie. Not such a good idea as it bled under the stencil. I also added Little Black Dress around the edges in the same way as the old gold on the other tiles. Decided I didn't really like that either.  

I put the stencil back on the word and added Little Black Dress again. Now this wasn't so bad!!!!  I then sponged Pewter over the black on the edges and really liked that too. Ok, I can live with this tile!!! LOL and as I said earlier, now I think this is my favorite. You can notice in this final picture that some of the alcohol ink has bled up through the flowers. It didn't happen right away (see above picture) but did show up. It could be that because I just dripped the alcohol ink there was more to bleed and that's why it is more noticeable on this tile. I sealed the tile with 4 coats of Gloss Glaze and put felt on the back.  

After all the trouble, especially on this last tile, I messaged the friend whose link I shared at the beginning (she also has a page on facebook). I thought maybe she was using a special paint or I was doing something wrong. She mentioned dealing with all the same things I had trouble with (bleed though, she said don't add water or it will bubble, etc.). She said if you didn't want any bleeding when painting that you needed to seal with a resin first.  She also uses resin as a sealer when she is done. I have used the tile I did this summer as a coaster and didn't have any trouble with cold glasses sitting on the tile, and the water dripping down from the glass sweating didn't bother it at all. I do notice if I set a hot cup of tea on the tile that it sometimes wants to stick but it hasn't left any marks on the tile.  

I know this isn't a project that you might want to do all the time but they are wonderful to look at and they can be a nice gift for someone special. Even with the problems, I would make more and it would get easier since I've learned what to be careful of. 

Thanks for following along!!!!  I'll see you next month!!!

~Wanda~

A huge thank you to Wanda from all at PA HQ for a week of wonderful projects. Tonight's project is stunning. Particularly love tile #3 wow. Thankfully for us,you had the patience to work through the not so happy moments.

We would love you to join in with our monthly challenge. If you are inspired by any of this month's guests who have blogged between Oct 1st 2014 and Oct 31st 2014 then join in and link up your creativity HERE. You will go in the draw to win a £50 voucher to spend on products of your choice from the PaperArtsy online store. You need to add your link by 19:00 (London time) Oct 31st 2014.