Posts Tagged “Paul Andrew Wandless”

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

I picked up the book (above) from the library a few weeks ago and only got around to reading it yesterday morning. Paul Wandless’ book has me swimming with ideas of how to use some print-making techniques on clay. I think it’s going to be the next phase of experimentation in clay work for me. I do love the immediacy of carving in clay, but it is time consuming, a commodity that I always seem to be lacking lately. I do have some Golden Cut Linoleum that I have been planning on using. I just need to cut the sheets down to size. The ones that I have are 18″ x 24″ sheets. By taking the time to carve a master block, I would be able to make multiples of a single image. I’m a proficient thrower and slab maker so I could easily throw a set of mugs and then “print” the design vs. carving them for hours.

Also up next is trying out some toner decals for ceramic pieces and some other image transfer techniques on clay such as Lazertran transfers as outlined in Paul’s book. Lazertran transfers don’t work for functional pieces because it’s a cold technique, meaning that it’s not fired onto the surface. Toner decals are fired onto the surface which would make these pieces useable.

I’m also intrigued by a Japanese product, called RISO Print Gocco. GOCCO is an at home screen printing process, and depending on the size of your unit, you can make masters for a 4″ x 6″ image up to double that size. Paul Wandless also does screen printing on clay, but the GOCCO seems like it would be a little easier to set up. Instead of inks for the screen printing, underglazes are used for ceramics. The image is then baked on the surface of the piece and it can be glazed too. I have done relief printing on clay before and really enjoyed the process.

You can check out some of Paul’s work here.

I took someone to the airport this morning at 5am, I didn’t realize how beautiful the sunrise is over the city of Denver at that time of day. I wish I had brought my camera!

Have a good weekend everyone,

Tags: Golden Linoleum, image transfer on clay, lazertran, Paul Andrew Wandless, Print Gocco, printmaking, toner decals