Wednesday, August 11, 2010

hey do you paint all those pictures on???...yes.....bahhahbhahhaha....sucker fools.

so many people ask me if i paint all my transfer pictures on my enamel hearts....
to me, its obviously a crazy concept. 
(we sell them on a silver chain for R300 each, i can't possibly paint them all individually)
today i will show you why...
firstly we have to cut the "blanks by hand". the blank heart shapes are cut from copper plate, 
then i have to enamel first the one side of the heart, let it cool down, clean it up and then enamel the back of the heart.....
then clean up the edges and then i can start working on putting on the transfers...
(i didn't include pictures of the start of the enamelling process because i would've ended up posting like a million photies....)
ok, firstly i decide on what picture to put on which heart....

then i hold the picture and the heart up to a light to postition the picture nicely on the heart....

i try hard to keep it in the same place with my strong thumb while i cut away the overlapping unwanted edges of the picture...


i make sure the picture fits nicely, cutting away any extra unwanted bits of paper....

i soak the picture in water, waiting for the backing to come loose....
(you would do the same applying a fake tattoo....)

i slide the picture off the backing onto the heart...

then i position it and make it fit nice and squeeze out all the excess water. 
i wait for it to dry before i fire it....

then i fire it in my kiln, until the ink of the picture fuses to the enamel underneath....

here is a whole bunch of transfer fired hearts, ready to be cleaned....
i hope you liked to see how i do this....if you have any other questions please let me know.

8 comments:

  1. there's my ship necklace, I love it so much. I wore it today actually

    x

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  2. Where do you get all the pretty transfers from?

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  3. hi Kat, i have to order them from over the sea....

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  4. o genade ek wil ok 'n skippie ene he! thanks for sharing your super clever technique... hand painted whhaaat?

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  5. Hey my love,
    can you order the transfer paper blank? ie can you order it (like you can with iron on paper) so that you can pop it in the printer and print special pictues?
    Hope you are well,
    xxSam

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  6. is this my lovely sam from brighton???? if it is....haai lovely sam!!!! i think you can order it blank...check out http://noleenread.com/ this girl makes copies of old photographs on an old printer....(you need a specific old printer that prints in a specific ink) but then when she fires it, it comes out sepia-like. you can contact her and ask her how she does it. normally what you would do, if you have specific designs, is to get the transfer companies to print your designs on the special paper...then you can get it done in any colours. rad. if this is sam bulgin email me and i'll give you the name of the company i use. love you millions.

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  7. love love love your goodies! :-)

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  8. I love your stuff and I think they are awesome!!!!! Where did you learn to work with such a medium?

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