Sunday, April 07, 2013

The heart form is a great way to try new techniques

I have the shapes precut sitting in a damp box, so whenever I want to try a new technique, they are ready.  I have been wanting to try the monoprinting technique I saw some time ago on Ceramic Arts Daily.  So yesterday I tried it and these two hearts were made using basically that technique but editing them after.  Interesting and different.  I think I can use this again.  It is a lot like gelli printing which I have looked at for paper/fabric, actually wet clay works a lot like the gelli base.  I think it was fun and will be interested to see it once glazed.  I will try this again too.  Here are some photos:  I started by using two flat hearts before shaping, one I covered with red underglaze, the other with deep yellow (didn't take a photo of the base yellow heart) then on the yellow heart proceeded to draw/apply other Underglazes, and smeared with fingertips, etc until I got something I could work with, then turned that over on top of the red Underglazed heart and rubbed---when I separated them, had two different images which I then edited, adding more blue underglaze to one, and finetuning some of the other features, lastly adding a silkscreen quotation from Bette Davis to the original one.

Then after letting them set up a bit, shaped them into puffy hearts:






.
 I will use clear glaze over them and they will be ready for firing



3 comments:

Asela said...

Hi there, I am in wet and windy London and wondering how you screen print on bisque? I read on the Colorado Art Studio page that you use glycerine as a as a silk screening vehicle for under glaze onto both raw and bisque fired clay. How do you do that exactly???
Cheers
Asela

Pauline said...

the secret in using silk screen on this is to rewet the screen. Often I am working with small parts of a eight and a half by 11 screen containing an image or text that I want to put on clay. Rewet the screen then pat dry between fluffy toweling. You will notice that the screen softens and is more pliable, and most importantly, the emulsion side has become a bit tacky which clings nicely to bisque. Then I use commercial underglazes to squeegy through the screen onto the bisque piece. My favorite tool is a soft rubber chisel end paint shaper, but I have cut rubber erasers into a wedge/chisel end and this works well also. It is best to screen onto paper the first time then using same screen put image on your bisque item. Often the second or third print is the best.
I only use glycerin when I am free handing design onto item which makes the under glaze flow better. If your under glaze is nice and thick like yogurt glycerin isn't required. I have had some students try to make their own under glaze but it doesn't work as well as the commercial products. All that being said, I now exclusively print onto greenware which is easy to correct smudges or mistakes. With bisqueware if it smudges you have to wash the pot and wait till it is dry before trying again. Plus I am doing mostly single firing my pieces. I do all decorating and glazing then fire once,skipping whole bisque process. I brush glazes on, not dipping which could be a mess on greenware. You could spray glazes on though. So far it is working very well for me.

Pauline said...

the secret in using silk screen on this is to rewet the screen. Often I am working with small parts of a eight and a half by 11 screen containing an image or text that I want to put on clay. Rewet the screen then pat dry between fluffy toweling. You will notice that the screen softens and is more pliable, and most importantly, the emulsion side has become a bit tacky which clings nicely to bisque. Then I use commercial underglazes to squeegy through the screen onto the bisque piece. My favorite tool is a soft rubber chisel end paint shaper, but I have cut rubber erasers into a wedge/chisel end and this works well also. It is best to screen onto paper the first time then using same screen put image on your bisque item. Often the second or third print is the best.
I only use glycerin when I am free handing design onto item which makes the under glaze flow better. If your under glaze is nice and thick like yogurt glycerin isn't required. I have had some students try to make their own under glaze but it doesn't work as well as the commercial products. All that being said, I now exclusively print onto greenware which is easy to correct smudges or mistakes. With bisqueware if it smudges you have to wash the pot and wait till it is dry before trying again. Plus I am doing mostly single firing my pieces. I do all decorating and glazing then fire once,skipping whole bisque process. I brush glazes on, not dipping which could be a mess on greenware. You could spray glazes on though. So far it is working very well for me.