Lately I have had requests to teach tile painting.  It’s been 5 years since I have done that technique.  Mural painting is a commitment.  It takes a bit of knowledge of how certain techniques work on a tile canvas.  There are many ways to paint a mural.

Glaze and wax resist is one way. This is where you use a low fire glaze and outline a design with wax so the glazes do not touch or mix when firing.  This style you would see on tile trivets at souvenir shops or at Carly Quinn’s Shop in downtown Tucson.

Majolica is another technique.  This is where you apply a milky white glaze to bisque fired tile and paint stains or oxides on top of the glaze.  You see this on Italian ceramics,  and mexican murals.

Underglaze Technique  is one more way of painting on tile.    I’m sure there are other ways to paint a picture on tile that is kiln fired.  I have experience with all the above techniques but the one that gives the most control is the underglaze technique.

Underglaze technique is just what it sounds like.  You begin with applying colored slips, englobes, oxides or stains on raw or fired tiles.  After the image is completed then  you apply a clear glaze.  This can be accomplished with either high fire or low fire clay bodies but to get the brightest colors you want to stick with a low fire, cone 06 temperature.

Classes will begin Tuesdays,  March 18th from 6-8,  for 4 weeks.   Contact me below for details.

Here are some of my archived images of tile trivets,  a framed mural and a mural installation I have painted in the past.  They are painted with many layers of colored slips and highlighted for shadowing with oxides.  Any brand of underglazes will do, but it’s all in the way you place your colors against colored backgrounds that make them pop.  That is the trick to making a mural come to life.

So I am putting together a class in tile painting with underglazes.  We will be starting out small by painting trivets.  Hopefully, if you are willing, we can graduated to a full mural with a frame like the one below.