Porcelain Pens on a Rainy Sunday

Its cold and wet in Sydney this Sunday morning.  With luck it will clear this afternoon and we will have sunshine again tomorrow.

This last week I have used the wonders of Facebook to gain some useful information. Yes, pottery related of course.

As part of the Empty Bowls Project ( a world wide phenomenon, click here to see more about it) my local pottery group are putting on in August, we are asking well known celebrities to sign bowls which will then be offered at a Silent Auction at the event.  As you might know, writing on clay has some technical issues.  We tried a ceramic pencil on a bisqued pot and were not happy with the result.

Thanks to my Facebook contacts it was suggested we try a porcelain pen (like a texta) and below is the test on one of my seconds.

Porcelain pen test in black

Porcelain pen in blue

These pens are readily available from Spotlight stores near their glass painting supplies.

They need to be tested on paper first.  As you can see the blue one had a bit too much ink in the marker when I first got the ink flow into the point.  The black one is a better line as I was more careful.
To set the ink, just bake in the kitchen oven for 90 minutes at 160deg C.

Much easier for a novice to use.  I think it has general application possibilities too.
Posting this over on the group blog link up,
Mud Colony or drop by my Facebook page, Anna's Ceramics.