Silk Screen on Clay Follow Up Post and Lead Free On Glaze Found
I’m always amazed at how generous the clay community is in regards to sharing information and techniques (which would make a good blog topic for another day). I personally use the internet as my main research tool nowadays – it leads me to book titles, magazine articles, other artists and potters, tools, products to try, glaze recipes, tips, techniques and more. After writing about my frustration of not finding a lead free commercial overglaze to silkscreen on to decal paper for work that comes into contact with food 2 days ago, a few people offered up suggestions in the comment section following my post and via email. I think that their info is worth sharing in a separate post today.
Pauline from Wilmington, N.C. wrote to me via email and mentioned that decals are prone to scratching and metal marks from utensils, whereas silk screening onto wet or bisque fired clay using under glazes, and then sealing with a clear or transparent glaze creates a more durable surface. Pauline teaches silk screening on clay classes and sent me her class handouts and also many different images of her process. She has given me permission to share some of her images and information on my blog.
Silk screened hand built vases with underglaze and clear glaze over top, courtesy of the artist
An example of text silk screened onto bisque fired clay – very crisp, courtesy of artist.
Silk Screened Fish Plate – I'm impressed with the amount of detail in the fish. (I think the text above the image is a typo) Courtesy of the Artist.
Pauline also recommended using glycerin, which is available in drug stores, as a silk screening vehicle for under glaze onto both raw and bisque fired clay.
Here are some of her suppliers to make silk screens easily without having to build a screen from scratch:
- PhotoEZ Silk Screen sells kits, photo emulsion and pre-made silk screens for use on fabric, paper, clay, glass, and more.
- EZ Screen Print – sells everything you need to make your own silk screens. This is the site where I purchased my supplies last year – no chemicals needed or special equipment.
She also sent me a few links to potters/ceramic artists who use silk screen methods to transfer images to clay or make their own decals that she shares with her students:
- Cul de Sac Design – Laura McKibbon
- Laura Zindel – according to Laura’s site, she mentions that her technique is a modern version of transfer ware.
- International Museum of Print and Clay – a collection of artists who use printmaking techniques on clay, including silk screening decals.
- Katie Parker – looks like she uses a variety of techniques including decals, sculpture, screen printing.
- Circa Ceramics Nancy and Andy use a Print Gocco to make custom decals for their work.
- Kuehn Keramik – not actually an individual artist, but a German shop that carries a wide variety of home furnishings including ceramic work.
- Annabel Faraday – a ceramicist out of Great Britain who silk screens maps onto clay.
- Liz Emtage Ceramics – makes really beautiful translucent silk screened porcelain lamps.
Pauline, thanks for the information and links. While I recognized the work of some of these artists (and many are some of my faves), a few are new to me.
I also received a comment from Brian Fields (happens to live in North Carolina too) who gave me quite a gift in the form of a link to Reusch & Co., a local Colorado company (just an hour north of Denver) that sells lead and cadmium free overglaze, along with a variety of decal making supplies. Here’s a link to Reusch’s products and catalog. Reusch also provides a variety of technical information as well as tips on making small run decals. I’m not sure why Reusch never came up in my searches in the past – either they’re not using key words effectively or haven’t worked on SEO. Or, maybe I wasn’t using the right search terms. At any rate, thank you Brian!
Brian also mentioned Bel Inc., which I had already discovered but sort of ignored. They make custom decals, sell decal making supplies for a variety of applications including ceramic work, and also sell on glaze ceramic inks. I think I skipped this one because there’s a little disclaimer on the bottom “according to our testing results, the soluble Pb and Cd remains in trace (Please refer testing reports).” The problem is that I never found those reports online and kept searching. I suppose I could research acceptable lead and cadmium levels in pottery.
I plan on ordering a small quantity of on glaze from Reusch and will try my hand at making some silk screened decals in the near future. I also think that it might be interesting to combine silk screening on raw clay with underglaze and decals over glaze for a layered effect. The trick would be to keep it interesting while not overly busy.
Michael Kline, who happens to live in NC too, also wrote that he met Andy Brayman, who is both a ceramic artist and the owner of Easy Ceramic Decals at an Arrowmont conference . Andy will take your original art and create custom decals for you to use on your work which will save you precious studio time to concentrate on other tasks. Andy uses a special printer that he found in Europe that is able to produce polychrome decals and his prices are very reasonable for a small run.
One additional thought from me, ceramic decals have become quite popular in the last few years. It’s hard to open a ceramic magazine or book without seeing the process in use today. I’m probably a little late to the party – or maybe it’s only getting started. I’m not sure – feel free to weigh in. I want to use my own imagery and am looking for a way to combine 2D art such as drawing/photography/painting and ceramics in a more efficient manner to finish my work. Many printmaking techniques have been used for centuries for ceramic decoration, so in that sense, this isn’t a new or trendy phenomenon. I suppose at the end of the day, it’s how a person uses the technique, rather than the technique itself that matters.
Finally, did a whole lot of potters find some type of clay nirvana in North Carolina? Am I missing out in something? If so I had better think about relocating so I can drink some of their Kool-Aid! Just kidding, I know North Carolina is a state with a rich clay heritage and appreciation of fine craft.
Now that my post is written, I’m signing off for the day – at least until after dinner tonight. I have some work to do.
~Cynthia
Follow up note: I use the terms “on glaze” and “over glaze” interchangeably. Which is the more accurate term – or are they one and the same?
All this time, I’ve been googling over glaze, china paints, ceramic ink, decals, silk screening decals for ceramics and other possible combinations – but a quick search for “on glaze” and a mother load of new results appear. Try searching onglaze, on glaze or on-glaze (insert or delete the space between on and glaze, add hyphens etc.) and thousands of new search results are returned. You could narrow the same search to “lead free onglaze” and include even narrower search terms until you find relevant information. Doh – but even after perusing 5 pages, I still haven’t seen either Reusch or Ferro in the results. Lesson learned – use multiple search terms to get the most bang for your time and effort.
Last note: It’s a bit of synchronicity that the daily email from Ceramic Arts Daily features China Paint and Overglaze by Paul Lewing today, which after looking at the table of contents includes a chapter on making overglaze enamels from scratch. I looked for the book in the Denver Public Library database, but it’s not available, but I was able to request the book via inter-library loan. The closest copy is at the University of Colorado at Boulder library – I always forget that we can borrow books from anywhere in the world using World Cat which is available through the library’s online interface and now also on Facebook.
Ceramic Ink Recipe for Screen Printing on Clay
Contemporary Ceramic Techniques by John W. Conrad
Last summer, after reading both Paul Wandless’ book Image Transfer on Clay and Ceramics and Print by Paul Scott, I decided that I wanted to try screen printing my own ceramic decals to fire onto my clay work. I have had the decal paper and screen supplies for over a year, and haven’t yet attempted the process. I’ve been hung up on trying to find a commercial lead free overglaze to use on functional pottery, but have become frustrated at the lack of available products.
I discovered Ferro, a company that offers a variety of products for ceramic applications including a lead free onglaze collection called Samba Plus. Ferro mainly caters to production ceramic companies that produce major lines of dinner ware, though their stains are available in small quantities through some ceramic suppliers. After contacting the company, I was given the name of the US rep, but it sounded like I would have to order a large quantity which might not be wise since I’m in the experimenting stage. What if I hate the process? I could end up being stuck with 100′s of pounds of product. The only company that I found that sells Samba Plus online is CerdXpress, out of Germany where the product is sold in 1,000kg increments. That’s a whole lot of onglaze!
After a few failed searches and multiple week long pauses over the past year, I decided to resume my quest for a lead free overglaze a few weeks ago. I did a quick search for decals on http://www.potters.org which turned up several threads about making decals, commercial decal providers, custom decal companies, along with a variety of different possible decal options from laser prints, screen prints, direct drawing on decal paper and more. I eventually found several references to ceramic ink recipes in John Conrad’s book, Contemporary Ceramic Techniques published in 1979 and now out of print. I found a copy at the Denver Public Library and it appears that used copies can be purchased for as little as $1.91 through Amazon.
Last night, I had a chance to scan through the book and flipped to the screen printing section. The ceramic ink recipes he mentions are essentially stain recipes minus the water – basically an oxide combined with a frit and possibly one additional ingredient which is then suspended in a liquid vehicle for silk screening onto some type of base. Note: The ingredients must be thoroughly sieved before using.
Green Stain Recipe from book, page 126
- Copper Carb 50
- Tin Oxide 25
- Frit 25 (he doesn’t name the frit – it would depend on firing temp and the oxide I imagine)
- total 100
Since this is a stain and not a glaze or overglaze, I sort of think that this is better suited for use on raw or bisqued clay vs. decals to be fired on top of a glazed piece. In some ways, I’m back to square one. It might come down to purchasing the Ferro Product at some point in time, if I insist on using silk-screened decals on functional work. Obviously, it wouldn’t matter what kind of product I used for work that doesn’t come into contact with food.
For the liquid vehicle suspender, the author recommends using a commercial silkscreen oil based extender, commercial squeegee oil (whatever that is), decal lacquer, cmc or screening varnish and doesn’t specify an amount other than to say that the mixture should be viscous enough to be able to push through whatever mesh screen you’ve chosen based on the amount of detail of the image. A detailed image requires a finer mesh than a simple graphic one. He also writes that common household items will work as a vehicle too such as baby oil, liquid soap, Vaseline or liquid wax – but cautions that using these items will result in more frequent cleaning of the screen (pages 124-125). Once the screen is ready, the ceramic ink is squeegeed through the screen either directly onto raw clay, bisque work, glazed work or decal paper. Seems pretty simple, doesn’t it? Of course this is after scanning the original artwork or photograph and exposing the screen – or using a stencil or other masking technique (tape, glue, paper, plastic) for the image/design.
For ease of use, I could simply use a colored slip, engobe or commercial underglaze if screening onto to raw or bisqued clay. The dilemma is that even if I use a transparent glaze over the image, it becomes muted – whereas if I add a decal on top of a glaze, the image is crisper and the effect is totally different. In a way, this obsessive trait of mine to figure this out is related to my insistance on understanding the technological side of blogging, my computer and all the other stuff that distracts me from making work – but that’s a post for another day. 
On a related note, I recently picked up a couple of books on Polaroid transfer techniques from the library, with the thought that this might be a possible application for clay. Polaroid film is currently being phased out; however, although there are other film manufacturers that offer a similar product. The problem for me with this technique is that it requires purchasing additional equipment to expose and print the images on top of the screen printing supplies – so I’m not going to go there. I could probably manipulate an image similarly in Photoshop with less expense or effort.
I haven’t given up on relief printing either – I love this technique tremendously. I simply want to become more efficient at decorating my work after realizing how much time it takes to hand paint designs. Laser print decals are also certainly an option and much less labor intensive – the iron oxide in the ink transfers to glazed pieces after firing, though it is limited as far as color is concerned because the black ink fires to a sepia color.
Meanwhile, my after school kid’s clay class starts today – I’m ready to go and looking forward to the next 6 weeks. I have a very small class this session – only 8 students, which will be fantastic since I’ll be able to spend more time one on one with each student.
I’m heading out to the studio for the next 4 hours,
~Cynthia
Wiggle Wire Tool
Homemade Wiggle Wire Tool
I’ve noticed that quite a few people use a “wiggle wire” to cut their freshly thrown mugs off of the pottery wheel head which gives the bottom textural interest and also negates the need to trim a foot. I’ve wanted to try one for quite awhile and decided to attempt making a homemade one myself after I came up empty handed at my local ceramic supplier. I could order the Bill Van Gilder Wiggle Wire Tool online, but then I remembered that Emily writes a lot of tool reviews and “how to’s” so I went in search of a wiggle tool on her site. Lo and behold, I hit pay dirt!
I looked around my studio which also happens to be the woodworking/tool shop and gathered many of the tools and supplies I thought I might need to make one. The following images show how I made my wiggle wire tool – click on an image to enlarge.
Emily has a great list of resources of where to find wire to make a custom cut off wire tool on her blog. While making mine, I improvised and ended up using a fairly thick 19 gauge wire I had lying around the garage which makes it very sturdy – but after a quick web search, also found coiled springs at automotive shops online, hardware stores and other non-pottery general purpose shops. I tried using some thinner beading wire, but it was too fine and didn’t hold its shape. I also vaguely remember reading a tutorial in a clay magazine that suggested using piano wire – but since a piano shop is not on my regular route, I decided to skip this outlet.
Meanwhile, I did a little housekeeping yesterday – not actually cleaning my home, but rather straightening up all the files on my computer including documents, desktop, programs, email addresses, photos etc. I feel so much better now and can actually find what I’m looking for easily which should help me be more productive. I made & organized folders and deleted old files, duplicates, and addresses I don’t recognize and then did a complete maintenance clean up of my system.
This coming week, I have Monday – Friday, 9am – 3pm to work in the studio while my daughter is in school and I’m looking forward to getting back in the swing of things. I need to make work for 2 local Colorado galleries, and the Colorado Potters Guild Fall Sale is fast approaching – not to mention the holidays. I know I’ve written about Wholesalecrafts.com before, and this weekend I made the decision to drop this sales outlet. I took a hard look at my schedule & priorities and realize that at this point in my life, I just don’t have the time to devote to adding more obligations on top of everything else. It’s too much stress and that’s no way to live.
As my daughter grows older, needs me less, and eventually leaves home, I know there will be plenty of time to build a full time career out of clay. In the meantime, I’ll nurture my part time foray into clay and my patch work quilt of a life making ceramic work, being a mom, teaching, subbing and volunteering. Geez, in the past 2.75 years of blogging, I’ve learned so much about myself, my limitations, my inspiration and where I want to go and what I want to accomplish. It’s been a weird, exhilarating and humbling ride.
Have a great week,
~Cynthia
Coming soon to my website: glaze recipes, gallery images, how to’s!
Kung Fu and Shaolin Philosophy
Kung Fu
My husband recently came home with the second season of Kung Fu, 1972-75 starring David Carradine, and that’s about all the TV we watched for 3 weeks straight. I didn’t tune into all the episodes – maybe half, but despite its cheesiness, I sort of liked them. I vaguely remember watching the show the first time around, but found myself drawn into the story of “Caine”, a Shaolin Monk who is on the run after killing one of the Chinese Emperor’s nephews in retaliation for his mentor’s murder. He finds himself in the American west around the mid to late 1800′s looking for a long lost brother.
Is that not a bizarre story plot – Buddhist monk walking barefoot town to town constantly finding himself in the midst of gun slingers and moral dilemmas in the wild west?
In the show, Caine continually flashes back to the Shaolin Temple, where he received his training after being orphaned as a child. These “flashes” always seem to occur when he is contemplating a course of action or formulating a sparse, yet wise response to a critical situation. The Shaolin Temple is thought to be the birth place of Zen Buddhism in China, hence the source of Caine’s calm spiritual demeanor on the series. He defends himself – yet never attacks, is always honorable, never judges, doesn’t need much, doesn’t lie, cheat or steal and always stands up for the down trodden, wronged or over looked persons. Caine never seems to look for trouble, but trouble always seems to find him – or maybe his eyes are just open and he doesn’t turn his back on the issues. I am guilty of closing my eyes occasionally when it doesn’t fit my schedule/plan. It’s not something about which I’m proud and also easy to do when a person is not totally invested or connected to their community (work, neighborhood, school, etc.). Yet in the TV show, Caine is most definitely not tied to any of the communities or people he runs into and still helps his fellow human being.
Anyway, where am I going with this? As I watched some of the episodes, I entertained the notion that as a human race, we would be much better off if we all acted like David Carradine’s character on Kung Fu.
Yes, my husband and I made fun of some of the pickles he got himself into, the rampant bad acting, humorous special effects and the sheer ridiculousness of the plot. Even so, we kept on watching. I know TV is not real life – but the show is fresh in my memory and I felt like writing about it. On a related note, one of my favorite podcasts is Zen is Stupid, which is sort of a funny title for a show with a Buddhist bent. I’m not even Buddhist, yet enjoy the insight and sometimes off topic banter between the hosts.
Meanwhile, it’s Friday evening and I survived a week of substitute teaching. It was a good but exhausting experience and on a positive note, those darn monkeys have finally stopped chattering.
Have a good weekend,
~Cynthia
