For each tile, you weigh out 90% BE Medium Amber fine frit, then in powder, 5% Carnelian, 2% Woodland Brown, 2% Pimento Red and 1% Light Coral Orange (or Crystal Clear, depending on which you have on hand).

Start by weighing out 70% of the Medium Amber by weight and setting it aside. Put the rest of the MA in a lidded jar, schpritz in some water, and sift the Pimento Red over it. Shake it really, really well and check frequently to make sure the Pimento powder is evenly distributed over the MA.

Now start filling the tile. Sift or fling a little bit of the Carnelian and Woodland across the face of the tile, fling a thicker amount of the MA mix across that (vary the direction of your flings), layer pure MA frit on that, then keep interlayering them like that until you’ve filled the tile.

It takes some practice and a lot of testing to get a look you like, and you need to make all the tiles in the same period of time, if possible–your filling technique will vary if you have long intervals between making these tiles. if you do, you need to make sure you mix batches together before applying them to the wall, or people will be able to say “ahhhh…these are the tiles she did before Thanksgiving, and THERE are the Christmas tiles…”

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Depending on what frit you mix it with you’ll get everything from dark chocolate to…(drum roll)…grey. It’s a sulphur glass, which means that if you mix the frit with copper or lead glasses (or silver) you’ll get a sulphide reaction where they touch. IOW, if the blue looks aqua it’s probably got copper in it, if it’s cold white, pink or purple or a warm, earthy brown there’s a good chance it has lead in it…and the glass will go dark on you.

How dark depends on how well it’s mixed, and how much of the metal is in the glass. Bullseye makes a good reactives chart for its glasses that explains it better than I can: http://www.bullseyeglass.com/education/glasstips/

Anyway, I’ll bet that has something to do with your problem. If you’re working in layers, you can avoid it by simply putting a thin layer of clear powder between the offending colors to separate them. Unless they’re really strong (the new reactive glasses, for example), that will stop the reaction.

The trick with really getting great skin tones, I’ve found, is to mimic the way real skin is built, with layers. I’ll build up from the back with clear frit, then sift on a thin layer of orange-red (Pimento, Tomato, Red-Orange, whatever). Then I add a dark purple (violet striker, deep plum, etc.) wherever I want shadows or hollows (eye sockets, under the cheekbones, inside the nostrils). After that, I can mix and layer my skin tones. I favor Light Peach Cream and clear–LPC is slightly reactive so I add a bit of turquoise or light aquamarine to it to tone down the peachiness.

As to mixing frits, after seeing your website, I solved a problem I had almost immediately. I have been looking for a convincing skin color, and mixed up Transparent Amber, one batch with opal white and one with clear. Both were successful, the white mixture had a more “Caucasion” look, and the clear mixture a bit more “tanned”. I will experiment more when I can.

I have tried to find food grade CMC here in Albuquerque, no luck. I tried gum arabic, and found no difference. I actually use Bullseye French Vanilla as my test frit, and do a freeze and fuse, or use Fusetac as a binder. That works very well, but it isn’t as hard as CMC or gum arabic, so I can’t rework or refine the piece before firing.

Although I do soak at 800 degrees with my peep hole open (I have a small Aim kiln), I am thinking it just might be still not oxidizing enough to burn out completely. The pottery supply owner where I got my CMC thinks that might be the case. I’m concentrating on production at the moment, but next opportunity I’ll try opening the lid a little. I will try a smaller amount of gum solution also.

I actually don’t use a classic Pate De Verre technique, but a variant of Freeze and Fuse. I use two part silicon molds, freeze, and then unmold. The binder then allows me to let the pieces dry, do some judicious alteration if needed, and then fire up when I get a kiln load.

I use the pieces to assemble jewelry with simple fused glass backing, or as elements for adding to larger fused glass objects.

I don’t get much time for the computer right now, as I am trying to work on a successful and saleable product. My husband and I are retired, and both of us dependant on Social Security checks, so if I’m to continue working with glass, I have to make it at least pay for itself!

Thanks again,
Elizabeth (Lisa, to my friends!)

Dunno who told you that Bullseye frits don’t mix well, but they mix wonderfully, to the point that they become just as much a color palette as watercolor paints (especially if you fill in the color gaps with Uro90 frits). There are some tricks to mixing, though:
–You have to pay careful attention to reactive colors. Mix the wrong glasses together and you will indeed get grey or dark brown or speckles or something in between.
–I primarily mix transparent colors, which makes sense if you think about it. You can’t really “mix” powdered glass, you’re simply distributing the different colors so that you see one through the other, making a new color. You can’t see one opaque through another, so what you wind up with is polka dots instead of a real mix.
–Opal glasses CAN be used to tint frit mixes quite successfully, but I find I have to keep the percentage of opal relatively low. There has to be enough there to intersperse evenly among the other colors, but if you get past about the 10% mark you start getting splotches again. The best opal/transparent mixes seem to come when the opals are about the same saturation/value levels as the transparents.

Your problem could be the binder, I suppose. One way to test is to use the identical frits in a freeze-and-fuse with water and a pack with binder, then fire both in the same kilnload. Use the same mold, same everything else. If they don’t look the same, you’re right, it’s probably the binder.

I use gum arabic–I buy the less expensive printer’s GA, which isn’t as pure, then I dilute it with water. It only takes a few drops of GA to perhaps a quarter-cup of water to make a good binder.

If you want to eliminate all possibility of contaminants and still use a binder, go to a pastry/cake decorating/restaurant supply store (whatever’s handiest) and get some CMC (carboxymethylcellulose). Food-grade is the purest. Mix a batch of that like you would old-fashioned gelatin (which also works, BTW) to make a gel, and try that. CMC mixes vary, so you’ll have to experiment to get the right consistency.

Try your piece with the CMC and see if that helps.

But I really wonder if it’s not something else. Just out of curiosity, what colors are you using?

Also…if you’re using a pate de verre mold, the glass doesn’t HAVE to be placed in the mold with a binder. I tend to reserve binders for when the glass has to stick to the sides, or I’m being really finicky with placement in second or third layers. Otherwise, I prefer using it dry–I have more control and I don’t have to worry about contaminating the glass. You might see if it works better for you dry.

I emailed Barry, who was very gracious and tried to help, but he couldn’t figure it out.

Currently, I am using Glastac which works for me relatively well, but I continue to search for an answer. The sturdiness of the clay formula allows for some refining before fusing, which the Glastac formula does not allow.

What interested me is your work with color mixing. I am only recently getting into it, as I was told Bullseye frits do not mix well. I am learning, yes and no. Some colors react badly with each other, and some work fine.
Your color work has encouraged me to continue working with it. Thanks!

There are times, though, when I think I’m doing more testing than actual making, and that gets frustrating.It’s only been in the last six months or so that I’ve started to be able to predict what the glass will do without making a bunch of tests (and be reasonably accurate) in the warm ranges. I’m still working on the cool blues.