How to Paint Fired Ceramic Tiles
Painting on ceramic tiles involves a specialty paint called overglaze. As the name suggests, overglaze provides decorative detail to a ceramic article already glazed and fired. Overglaze paint fuses into the original glaze on the fired ceramic tile to create a durable, vibrant piece of art. The powdered paint works wet, suspended in a medium such as linseed oil, or can be applied in dry form. The process takes some practice to master; start with some of the basic steps to learn about overglaze and painting on fired ceramic tiles.
Things You'll Need
- 3 blank white fired ceramic tiles
- Powdered paint
- Palette knife
- Small brush
- Oil medium
- Turpentine
- Paper towel
- Kiln
Instructions
-
Mixing Paints
-
1
Place a small amount of powdered paint, or overglaze, on to a blank tile. This will be your mixing tile.With a palette knife, add a tiny drop of oil medium and turpentine. Mix thoroughly, grinding the paint into the tile with your knife. Keep scraping and mixing until you have the consistency of toothpaste. If it's too dry, add more oil.
-
2
Scrape the mixed paint onto a second tile. This will be your palette.
-
-
3
Clean the mixing tile and knife with turpentine and mix your next color.
Painting
-
4
Dip a small brush into turpentine. Let it drain off, pushing the brush against the edge of the jar. Pull a tiny amount of paint to one side of your palette and mix with the brush. The paint should thin some. Don't let the paint run into other colors on the palette tile.
-
5
Wipe your brush off with a paper towel. Load a small amount of the thinned paint back onto the brush. Use this to outline your painting.
-
6
Fire the tile again in a kiln once you have completed a layer of painting, such as the background. (Painting on tiles means firing in layers. The original tile is fired, then painted and fired again to fuse the overglaze.)
-
1
Tips & Warnings
When choosing your colors, be sure to select paints designed specifically for ceramic tile, such as china paints.
Use graph paper to design your painting before attempting to put it on a tile.
You can sketch directly on fired tile. Make a light sketch with a china marker, then fill in the details with India ink and a brush. After the ink has dried, the marker washes off with turpentine. The ink will evaporate during the firing process.
Consider using odorless turpentine when painting to remove any concerns about fumes.
Mixing colors to create new ones does not always work well with overglaze. It is best to work with premixed colors.
