Printmaking Techniques on Clay
My daughter’s slip transfer ceramic wall piece “Ripply River”
My marionette class is winding down at the Art Student’s League of Denver- well actually ramping up into a crescendo of activity as we finish our marionettes. Tomorrow is our last day of camp, yet it feels like we just started. The clay pieces went into the kiln on Tuesday evening and spent the overnight on low in an attempt to dry them out completely before firing. They were fired yesterday and I will unload the ceramic heads, hands and feet this afternoon so that we can finish constructing our marionettes by the end of class tomorrow – I’m keeping my fingers crossed that all the little pieces survived! Otherwise, on to plan “C” for those affected. Incidentally, I don’t know what plan C is – but will figure it out if necessary.
In the meantime, I’ve started writing the lesson plan for next week’s class titled, Beyond Silly Putty – which is basically an exploration of different printmaking techniques on clay. (I didn’t name my class, btw- though I like it) This class won’t require as much prep work as the marionette class since it’s an area of clay exploration that I’m very much interested in applying to my own work. I’ve already taught a couple of the projects that we’re going to make next week in my after school kid’s clay classes last school year.
Some of the projects we’re going to make:
- slip transfers
- handmade roulettes and stamps to use and keep
- relief printing on clay and unlike the linoleum that I carve for my own work, we’re going to use something similar to this which is a Styrofoam type printing plate for kids which does not require the use of sharp carving tools, but uses pens, and other instruments to incise lines.
- stencils
- found objects that we can use to stamp or use as stencils
- collographs – we’re going to make our own printing plates using the contents of the recycle bin and other misc. items like rope and hot glue to make our own texture printing blocks
- paper resist designs
- if we have time, we’ll even make a “Plate-o-matic” as outlined in a recent Pottery Making Illustrated
I’m going to play it by ear as the week passes to gauge the energy and productivity level of the class.
Anna, 3rd grade, “Lucky”, slip transfer wall plaque
While I love all my student’s work, these 4 pieces are a few of my favorite slip transfer pieces that some of the kids in my class made last year.
Ryan, 4th grade, “Copper”, slip transfer wall plaque
Cassidy, 2nd grade, “Cat”, slip transfer wall plaque
These pieces along with several others were on display at the Space Gallery last April. The kids worked very hard and were so pumped seeing their work in a professional art setting.
Needless to say, I haven’t had the energy to make any of my own work this past week and doubt that next week will be any better. I suppose this is the down side of teaching – I find teaching inspiring, invigorating, but thoroughly exhausting. I teach in the morning next week, instead of the afternoons that I’m teaching this week, so maybe I’ll be able to do a little something in the afternoon clay wise.
Until later,
~Cynthia
Image Transfer on Clay
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,
