Flamingo Pink & Aqua

To start working with the tiles, I taped ALL of the backs of the 50 I bought before my project with blue painter’s tape.  This allows me to paint & resin the tiles without worrying about the backs and I can peel the tape off once they have fully cured.

Then, I primed half of them with GAC 200 to use with acrylic pours and high flow acrylic paint.  I left the others alone for use with alcohol inks & resin.

I resin all of my tiles after painting them to provide uv-protection & a glass-like finish.  My favorite resin is Art Resin.  Before resining, I now seal all paintings with gloss varnish.  This prevents the reds & pinks disappearing upon resining.

My biggest complaint using ceramic tiles is that collectors seem to think that they are coasters or for use tiling one’s kitchen (I guess they could be, but that’s an awfully expensive coaster or kitchen tile!).  So, I have set out to frame them to make it clear that they are paintings.

I mocked up a tile painting (below) and then realized that I could ACTUALLY frame them this way.

In order to frame them, I purchased 8″ x 8″ frames from Amazon and removed the glass, backing, and mat.  The backing is mdf & I can adhere the tile to it with silicone adhesive for a very strong bond.  Adhering the tile to the mat is just asking for the tile to fall as the matting surface pulls away.  So, I layered the mat over the mdf backing board & put silicone adhesive within space of uncovered mdf, then I layered the tile over that and placed a heavy book on top.  After a day, the tile was adhered to the backing board, with the mat sandwiched between the tile & backing board.  Then I can pop it into the frame and hang it.  This is a permanent mounting and not considered conservation grade.