Tie Dye fused bottles are a fun take on the old flattened bottle trick. To make these, you need Bottle Glass Compatible Paint (any glass paint that is non CoE exclusive) and Mica Paints.
You will also need bottles:
Start by squirting out some paint into little containers. We need to thin it slightly so it’s more the consistency of yellow mustard. You can see the cobalt and red are already a bit thinner than the other colors:
Add some water:
Stir to mix:
Here is the thinned Glassline paint and water. You can see the pigment settles to the bottom very quickly. To fix this, add a drop or so of dishwashing detergent to the mix. This acts as a deflocculant, keeping the paint suspended in the water. You’ll notice it makes the paint gel up slightly.
Then pour one color into a clear bottle:
Once all the color is in there:
Put your hand over the neck of the bottle and shake that thing like crazy to spread the paint around.
The paint is wet, of course, and will still move around a little, so if you aren’t super happy with the paint distribution, set the bottle at a slight angle and gravity will pull the paint down the side of the bottle. After a couple of hours, you can move the bottle again. If you love it, just set it aside somewhere warm to dry.
If your paint is too thin and doesn’t stick onto the bottle:
set it aside for a bit, the paint will pool at the bottom and separate from the water:
and you can pour out a little of the extra water (some paint will come too, it’s okay). Then you can add a bit more dish detergent and try shaking it again. This is a little tricky because you can’t stir in the detergent. Or, you can practice patience by turning the bottle so the thicker paint is up, and wait for it to trickle down, then turn again:
It will take a few turns, but the end result will be awesome!
After the first paint color has dried, pour in the second paint color and shake. My first paint color took a couple days to dry, so don’t do this project when you are in a huge hurry.
Once the second paint is dry, you can add the metallic mica accents. (Side note, although it is optimal to wait for the paint to dry, you don’t have to, just be careful of the paint in the neck of the bottle).
Prepare the mica by mixing it with a liquid medium. I use liquid hairspray. The brand doesn’t matter so much, but you must be consistent and always use the same brand. Mixing hairspray formulas does weird things to mica. Start with 1/16 of a teaspoon mica in 1/2 teaspoon hairspray. It needs to be creamy, so if it’s too thick, add more hairspray. Once you have the mica mixed, load up your paintbrush with as much as it will hold:
Carefully put it into the neck of the bottle, and shake the mica off the brush onto the inside of the bottle. You can tap it against the neck of the bottle.
Repeat as many times as you wish. If your paintbrush isn’t long enough, you can tape it to a chopstick:
Once you have all of your mica in there, put the bottles on a prepared kiln shelf and fire to a full fuse.
After the bottles are fired, you can use them as is, or slump them into dishes or whatever your heart fancies. If you want, you can do the full fuse on a texture tile and combine the tie dye with a swanky pattern.