Yesterday, I was playing around with some Lazertran paper that I purchased at my local art supply store and I’m quite pleased with the results. I first saw some finished projects in Paul Wandless’ book Image Transfer on Clay a few weeks ago and decided to give it a go. Lazertran can, however, be used on any number of surfaces besides clay - check out the Lazertran Gallery for specific examples. Pretty exciting!
Using Paul’s book and the instructions on the Lazertran package, I achieved great results:
To keep it simple, I used clip art to start along, with some glazed ceramic canvases that I had already prepared. This is a cold surface technique, meaning that the decal is not fired onto the finished piece. But, since these are meant for the wall and are functional - that is just fine.
After cutting out the images, I soaked the decals in water until they began to slide off the backing papers
While the decals were still damp, I positioned them onto the ceramic pieces.
Once the decals had dried, I painted on 1 light coat of real turpentine. If you’re going to try this, use the turpentine sparingly - I went over the decals a second time which caused the decal to disintegrate slightly. I don’t think it detracts from the image, but depending on the artist’s intention it could.
After the turpentine had completely dried, I sprayed on a coat of satin polyurethane to seal the image onto the glazed piece. I used Lazertran formulated for inkjet printers which dries white where there are unprinted areas. The polyurethane causes the unprinted parts to become transparent.
I think that there could be a lot of exciting possibilities using this product - including reusing original art, photographs, digital art etc. The sky really does seem like the limit here!
It’s mid-morning on Wednesday and I must get in a few hours in the Studio before taking my daughter and her friend to the Denver Art Museum this afternoon - which should be a muc more enjoyable venture compared to the last time I chaperoned a field trip there.
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