Silver lustres over light fire tints will have a frosted appearance, which is very effective combined with turquoise enamels and gold and paste work. A deep, rich maroon effect can be procured by painting two coats of purple lustre over liquid bright silver. Orange lustre over ruby will produce a strong scarlet color. Orange over blue, dark green or olive, will produce greenish tints. Over iridescent rose, a good bronze tone is obtained. Over gold, it will produce a purplish bronze effect.
Yellow is generally used for mixtures with blues, greens and grays to produce lighter tones. It is a light color and is mostly used for this purpose and for backgrounds. For a strong yellow effect give several applications and firings.
A single application of light green is a greenish gray. A more intense effect results from several applications. Light green lustre is very popular as a tint used in connection with gold. That is, it is applied after the gold is fired. Rose over liquid bright gold produces a strong metallic effect. If pink or rose is overfired it will have a purplish tone. A soft pearl effect is obtained from a light wash of yellow or light green over fired rose. A background of rose is most effective for paste and gold work.
Blending of blue, pink and gray are found in iridescent rose which can be used with very satisfactory results for a background, and inside of cups and bowls. Padding is not necessary as the more irregular the tint is applied the more striking will be the effect.
Copper, dark green, steel blue and purple must be well protected from dust and humidity, or they will become spotted in firing.
Opal and Mother of Pearl will not always fire successfully. They are not, however, wholly unreliable, but have a tendency to fire off.
Yellow pearl is one of the very beautiful iridescent colors, with a variety of light and deep tones.
Two fired applications of ruby purple will make a very deep tone. It is very effective when used with paste and gold work. A fine iridescent, deep green background for gold, is obtained by firing light green over ruby.
Steel blue, as a rule, is a very pleasing transparent color, but it will sometimes fire iridescent dark greenish gray. It combines well with silver and black for conventional designs. A wash of yellow over steel blue will give an oxidized silver effect.
Copper is used successfully over gold lustre. Very pleasing combinations of colors are produced by applying enamels over unfired lustres. They assume a pinkish cast in firing.