Posts Tagged “clay monotype”

I’ve spend entirely too much time online recently, and can’t seem to sign off when I mentally tell myself to. So, the other day, I uploaded some new photos to flickr and started messing around with some widgets and such while I was there. I came across Big Huge Labs, that nabs some of your photos to create this cool little mini banner.

Meanwhile, I spent the better part of 2 hours applying to wholesalecrafts.com this morning. A rep called me this am to follow up with an inquiry that I had sent them. I sort of forgot about it, but then, thought, “What the heck, let’s see what she has to say!” She gave me temporary access to the site for me to peruse, and answered all my questions. It’s $395.00 a year, if I am accepted. That’s a lot of dough, but, I asked a few people who are represented by wholesale crafts and they’re doing great - so it could be worth the investment. One artist I know even closed her Etsy shop because of the amount of business coming her way.

In other news, I terminated my relationship with online retailer, Asian iCandy, this am. They haven’t sold any of my work, so I don’t think it was a good fit. It was a drop-ship arrangement, so overall, it was a good experiment. I think it’s really hard to sell things online without the buyer being able to physically see and hold an item - and I don’t know what their marketing plan is or how they reach their customers. Wholesale would be a much better investment of my time and efforts. Money upfront, make the work and then send.

That doesn’t mean I will not do Etsy, art fairs or other venues - it’s just another avenue to make a living doing what I love.

I did a little more work on my clay bird monotype - it’s really more of a painting now.

That’s it for today,

~Cynthia

Tags: big huge labs, clay monotype, Flickr, wholesalecrafts.com

My very rudimentary clay monotype
In preparation for a kid’s art workshop that I’m going to be teaching at the Art Student’s League this coming summer, I decided to attempt making a clay and underglaze monotype outlined in Paul Wandless’ book, Image Transfer on Clay, pg.72. I had limited success, but, to be honest, I didn’t really follow his instructions to a “T”. I didn’t have time to make any slip to transfer my drawing, so I tried using a very wet slab. The results? Not all the image transferred - so I filled in the blanks by directly painting the underglaze onto the printed slab. I will try again next time using either a plaster slab, or a slip applique as outlined in his book. I do think, that by taking the short cut and seeing the results, I learned a lot - sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn’t. You just never know until you try.Meanwhile, I’m not impressed with my image and am going to add some interest to the piece after it’s bisqued. Maybe I’ll stamp or screen print more onto the background - I’m going to continue to think about it.

Image Transfer on Clay
This is an awesome book - one I highly recommend if you are interested in combining printmaking techniques and ceramics. Paul’s book has great step by step instructions along with recipes and supplier information. Another good book on the same topic is Ceramics and Print by Paul Scott.
I used the students from my after school kid’s clay class as my guinea pigs for the monotype experiment. After spending an hour glazing their projects from last week, I realized that a 2 hour class wasn’t long enough to do this project. I made an executive decision to scrap clay monotypes and had them draw and paint their designs directly onto their slabs.I have exciting news too - my class is overflowing and now have 13 kids in my Monday class and 18 in my Tuesday class. After trying to teach the class by myself last week and practically re-enacting a scene from Lord of the Flies (where I’m afraid the kids were close to tying me up), I decided I needed help. I just hired a high school student who is taking advanced ceramic classes to help me out. Yesterday was her first day and she’s perfect!

That’s all for today,

~Cynthia

Tags: clay monotype, image transfer on clay, kid's clay classes in Denver, Paul Andrew Wandless