Anyone who knows anything about painting/pottery/ceramics? Painting an ocarina.

Chop Logic

So I have this ocarina here, and its a nice one, cost me about 60 or so, but I play it all the time, take it with me on trips where i cant bring a guitar, the things great, I love it. Except I really just don't like how it looks. I didnt take this picture, but mines the one on the left:



Thats not exactly how it looks in real life, but its pretty close. So I figured, why not think about painting it. So I have a few questions for anyhting who knows anything about painting anything like this, I mean this thing is pretty much just a little pot with holes anyway so it cant be too different.

- Right now, it's all glazed and shiny, and I like that. What I was wondering is, if I just take normal (acrylic) paint and paint it, will it look stupid? If I took acrylic paint, painted it, and then glazed it with a clear glaze, would that look stupid?

-For glazes that aren't clear (I dont know what they're called). If I had a glaze that dries blue, and painted straight over my greenish ocarina, would you be able to see the green through the blue?

Thats basicly it right now, I mean its pretty much just a little pot, so if anyone has any ideas about this, it'd be appreciated. I just paid 60$ for it, and I dont want to accidently make it look like I got it for 5$. Thanks.

meatflower

I'm not an expert here, but I think if you just try to paint over it with acrylics it's gonna look stupid. I'm thinking of that dreaded "Lost in Blue" DS some guy painted with acrylics. It'll look like that. I'm afraid to post the picture because any thread it gets posted in divulges into "OH MY GOD!!! NO!!!!!".

The problem is this, that shiny glossiness to it comes from it being fired in a kiln. You won't be able to achieve the same effect without doing the same process. I think your best bet would be to call up the place you got it at and ask them what they think. I'm assuming it was produced there. If not, then they may not know much.

I'm not an expert on ceramics though, maybe someone else knows more about how viable repainting and refiring is.

Feral

I've never done this personally, but I've seen it done. My grandmother used to do ceramics and if she needed to repaint a piece she'd use fine-grain sandpaper, carefully sand off the existing paint, then use ceramic glaze to repaint it and then refire it in her kiln.

Kewop Decam

you shouldn't paint over glazes with acrylic paints. IF you're going to paint a ceramic piece with acrylics, you shouldn't add glazes to the piece at all. You fire it, then paint it. Not glaze, fire, then decide you want to paint over it with acrylic paint.

Leave it alone I say.

EDIT - acrylic glazes =/= ceramic glazes. They are two totally different things. Also, I wouldn't acrylic paint something and then put it near my mouth... ever

SilverWind

A glaze is crushed glass (or glass-component) that gets melted in the fires of the kiln. So... no, don't use acryllic paint. That would look awful and peel off, anyway.

I'd suggest trying to find someone with more expertise to help you. Perhaps a local pottery maker / teacher / ...? You'll need to find them for the kiln to use, anyway.

tech_hunter

It looks pretty cool to me the way it is now, but thats me.

Chop Logic

Hmm. So this sounds a lot more easy to fuck up then I thought. I'll probobly just leave it then. I mean, I don't hate how it looks and it doesn't really sound worth the risk. I mean I really could come out of this with something that looks horrible with no way to put it back. Thanks for the advice guys.

Also I looked up that DS. :O