First Experiences of Printing on clay

The afternoon before I rolled out my blank clay canvasses. The idea was to make a clay print, then drape the rolled out piece over a former to create a dish or platter. The clay needed to be at the right stage of dampness. Too dry and you would risk cracking and certainly needed to be a bit damp for the pigment medium to attach.

I used underglaze medium for the pigment to sit in. This turned out to be just the right consistency. I thought I had loaded quite a lot of pigment in my jars, but the colour didn't look particularly strong once it had been used on the print.

I used a sea green underglaze powder for one paint pot, from home, which I had had for a number of years. I bought underglaze powder when I set up 10 years ago, because this is what I had originally used at Kendal College pottery class. The powdered ug colour, when mixed up produces a more watercolour effect than the ready bought ug pots. I was hoping to experiment with this again one day.

I also made an orange colour, from uclan red and my powdered yellow. This did look a bit feint....I wait on the results! The last colour was made from oxides, 2 parts cobalt carbonate, I part red iron oxide and 1 part black iron oxide. ( the exact weights are in my technical book and reflective journal). These quantities were estimates based on my knowledge and previous use with underglazes and oxides. So, again, I am eagerly waiting to see the results!

The printing technique was the same as the previous week with paper, except the print bed was deeper to accommodate the printed slabs with board underneath. And the screens were made of slightly different material and the inks were as described above. I used different clays as these pieces are my test canvasses, though hopefully some turn out well!

Southern White Rhino. On Draycott white stoneware, slightly thicker.

Mr Lemon Sable Poot, Millie Fleur

These two are printed with the blue green underglaze.

Canada Lynx, printed with oxide medium. On Artemis white stoneware clay, slightly thinner.

Sumatran Tiger. For this one I used white grogged stoneware 157-4230. In this print two colours are used, enlayed at a slight distance away but on top of each other. I used black with orange on top.

This is a Cheetah, but because of the nature of the red clay and very feint prints (orange on black) I used my new designer liner and some yellow slip over the print as I was sure from experience that not much would show up on the red clay ( Scarva ES60). Not really a test then, just playing around.

If these platters are the direction that I am going in ( for now anyway) I am trying to use grogged clay as these tiny pieces of fired clay or sand makes the piece stronger, and as I am making some quite large platters, I think this is better.

Basic Print Process

Lay print screen on table (set up for depth before)

Tape ( wide tape) around the design, so you don't get ink over where you don't want it.

Load screen with ink. (Make a thick poured line of medium, then lightly drag across screen to load)

Pull ink down over image on screen with a printing scraper. Stronger for paper, a lighter touch for clay. I had to do several prints on top of each other.