Welcome to Ceramics Tips

a camel hair brush

Did you know that having a camel hair brush does not mean that your brush is made from the hair of a camel? It refers to a type of soft hair used in making the brush. Usually a camel hair brush is made of squirrel, goat, ox, pony or a blend of several hairs, depending on the desired softness

Storage

Use a piece of styrofoam to stick the tips of handles in with bristles up to store brushes.
Brushes may be washed in soap and water as long as they are rinsed clean before use with a particular media.
Never store brushes so that bristles are bent backward or out of shape.

Tricky areas

When painting areas that are hard to get at, take an old brush and bend the metal part with a pair of pliers to reach around corners.

Homemade brush effects

Brushes: Some lovely effects can be made with home made brushes.
They are best made with hair that has never been cut, be it human or animal, and bamboo is the easiest handle to work with.
It is a simple matter of gluing the hair together inside the bamboo, then twist wiring the outside to get a very tight fit.

Application

Wet your brush with water before applying water-based ceramic glazes or underglazes. If you are using metallics, translucent stains, lustres or your mother-or-pearls, wet your brush with the medium used to clean your brush. Always blott the excess out on a paper towel.

Beginners brushes

A recommended basic assortment of beginning brushes can include:
1) GLAZE BRUSH - Fan Glaze brush made of goat hair
2) SQUARE SHADER -sizes #4 & #8
3) ROUND BRUSH - sizes #6 & #8
4) LINER BRUSH -sizes #10/0, #2
Add sizes of shaders and rounds to your brush collection over time.

Standing Brushes

Never let your brushes stand in water or other cleaner even if you are going to use them right away. This will tend to bend the bristles and may cause them to stay that way permanently.

Stain brushes

Your stain brushes, made of stiff white bristles, will become stained when used in a variety of colours. This does not mean there is still paint in them.

Liner brushes

A liner is a long bristled brush used for fine line design work. This is different than a detail brush which has short bristles and will not hold much color.

Using your brush

Remember, a brush acts like a fountain pen, allowing colour to flow down the brush body to the tip as you work.
Hold your brush as straight up and down as you can, using light pressure when you are making lines.

Homemade

Brushes: Some lovely effects can be made with home made brushes.
They are best made with hair that has never been cut, be it human or animal, and bamboo is the easiest handle to work with.
It is a simple matter of gluing the hair together inside the bamboo, then twist wiring the outside to get a very tight fit.

‘sabeline ceramic brushes'

Did you know that ‘sabeline' is a specially prepared light-colored ox hair that is used in brushes? The use of Sabeline in conjunction with Sable will make a lower cost, good quality brush. Ceramic brushes made of natural bristles will hold fired product better than synthetic.

Brush hair in on my ceramic piece?

Brush hairs will fire out of all glazes. They will leave a mark in underglazes, matte, semi-matte or satin glazes as these ceramic products flow (move) very little during the firing process. Gloss glazes will move and smooth out the impression left by a stray brush hair.

Soap?

Brushes may be washed in soap and water as long as they are rinsed clean before use with a particular media.

Ferrule

The ferrule is the metal band toward the end of the brush that holds the bristles together.

Feather stroking

Feather stroking is a painting technique of using thinned paint about the consistency of milk with a flat brush. Short strokes are taken across a paper towel to split brush hairs for colour application.
the brush is then dipped into two different colours and applied to the piece, gives great effects with swirls etc.

Double-load

Double-load is the term that applies to loading your brush with more than one colour. The load can be increased to three or four colours.

Brush Parts

Most ceramic brushes have of four parts--

1) TIP - the very end of the brush hairs
2) RESERVOIR -the hairs that hold a reserve of color
3) FERRULE- the metal part
4) HANDLE -usuall made of wood, acrylic,or bamboo

The tip and reservoir are probably the most important parts of any brush, but the handle should be evenly weighted to achieve a well balanced brush stroke.

Mark brushes

It is a good idea to set aside a specific brush for a certain type of overglaze. Mark each brush as to what they were used for and save them for that purpose.