Tile Mural Painting Tutorial Part 2

supplies needed to get started

 

 

 

 

In part one I gave an introduction to tile mural painting the kinds of tiles I use, paints and the type of tile project I will be creating.  Today lets go over supplies and get started on de-glazing your tile. You will need the following:

9 4x4 tiles

Old rags

Paper towels

Water

Old newspaper

Etchall Etching Creme or Armour Etch, which works just the same, a 10 oz bottle will do for this project.

An old flat brush or sponge brush to apply the creme unto your tile

artist brushes flats, rounds, liners- size will depend on the design you will choose for your tile mural project.  I will be using several sizes of flats, liners and rounds.

Etchall or Armour Etch creme will both work

apply a heavy coat of Etchall creme

Step 1. Once the Armour etch is applied to the tile it takes 30 minutes for it to take affect and remove the glaze from the tile.  Since there are a total of 9 tiles I will lay them on several layers of old newspaper on a solid table surface and with an old brush I apply a heavy coat of creme to each tile and let sit for 30 minutes.  I make sure to wear gloves to protect from getting the creme unto my hands and skin this is the only mild toxic part of the entire tile mural painting process and one that I can tolerate.

Step 2

After the 30 minutes I take the tiles to my sink I place them in an old bucket I have and fill it with water and rinse them off.  When you rinse your tile you will now see that the tile has a bisque surface ready to receive paint. 

I have to give the tile 20-30 minutes to dry before proceeding to do any design layout and painting.  I however give the tile overnight to dry to make sure they have thoroughly

cured inside and out and all moisture is gone since they will be painted.  This is important since I do not fire tile in a kiln all these steps are important this allows the tile to rest, cure and accept the acrylic paints well. My total painting process from beginning to end is 3-6 weeks giving you a beautiful end result and tile ready for installation in your home.

So now that my tile is drying I have three design ideas I'm still working on for the tile mural a floral motif, landscape, or leaving the nest.  I'm leaning towards leaving the nest my daughter will be graduating from high school in May and will be off to college so I'm feeling the leaving the nest syndrome.  I will dedicate the tile mural to my Katie.

Part 3 of tutorial will be laying out the tile sketching the design and different methods on how you can do this, how to keep your tile in place and paint it,picking colors the fun part and painting your tile and seeing it come to life and options for hanging it or installing it.

Hope that you are feeling inspired to try this at home.