transfering the image---

Next Step:  carefully place the inked and wet (thus, fragile) piece of xerox paper onto a glazed surface--a tile, in this case--and smooth out.  You can also rub the surface with a blue rubber rib--gently, and with a little gum on it--since the paper has a tendency to tear. 

Inking the print

The next step is the inking of the gummed xerox---(I'm using another drawing in this stage; you'll see both transfers at the end).  The 'print' can be washed off inbetween inking by flooding the drawing with water into which some gum has been splashed in (about 1 Tbsp.).  I find this easier to do in an old bucket, rather than on the table top.

First stages of planographic printing on unfired glaze

Here are the first steps to making a transfer of a drawing onto the glazed surface of a pot:  put a little CMC gum onto the surface of the xeroxed drawing, then rub it around.   A little of the gum under the drawing, as well, will keep the paper from slipping around.  The mixed ink  (linseed oil and mason stain) is already mixed, and is now in a little puddle on the glass plate.

Printing on glazed ware

a mask in progress, with a transfer, on the left, of Bruce, and, on the right, of a student jumping rope

linseed oil and mason stain (peacock)

                It's February, already; where is the winter going?  I'm working with xeroxed images of some of my photographs, and glazed mask shapes, trying to put them together.  Online, I've seen a process which uses linseed oil mixed with a colorant/mason stain as the 'ink'---it's a planographic printing process, (as is lithography) using gum and water to cover and protect the areas of the xerox which do not have any ink.  But the demonstration, online, is showing the printing taking place on leatherhard clay, not on an unfired glazed surface (here's the link:  http://ceramicartsdaily.org/ceramic-supplies/ceramic-colorants-ceramic-supplies-2/photo-lithography-on-clay-a-surprisingly-simple-way-to-print-images-on-clay/)  The mask is not yet fired, not even yet finished.  The tiles to the right are tests, and fired.  More on this as I continue with the testing---

diversionary tactics

When I have a particularly problematic deadline, I sometimes procrastinate (for my helpful editors, no,I didn't really mean to type the word, prevaricate, instead---just a slip of the tongue, and thanks for reading the blog!  Let me know if there are any other slips!)  (you could say I was experimenting artistically, while putting various constraints on the production process).  Recently, while recovering from a procedure on my right leg, which was supposed to be kept elevated, I received an order for an award platter, due within a week.  I had also read the Ceramic Arts Daily email which showed a short, fairly explicit video of Kristina Bogdanov showing how to make a photo lithograph which could be transferred to a softer leatherhard surface.  Since my background was in printmaking, I was intrigued.  I took some drawings I'd done in pen and pencil to Kinko's,make Xeroxes, and mixed up the cmc gum, and the linseed oil and mason stain (peacock--I have a lot of it and don't use it very much).  I also mixed up vegetable oil and stain---pretty similar.  Then I gummed the Xerox, got out the brayer, and inked the print of the drawing.  I wanted to try it on a glazed surface as well as a leatherhard one, so I sprayed water on the surface of a mask I'd done, and tried doing a transfer of the bird drawings.  Here are photos of one of the birds, as well as of the transfer image onto the mask, with the bird on the left side of the photo.  It was harder to get the transfer to work on the glazed areas, since the glaze is pretty dry.  The final photo shows the drawing I did of trees on the hill above the Vatican in Rome, and the tile, covered with white slip, since my clay is dark, with the transfer of the image in the peacock stain.  When the mask is fired, I'll slip in an image of it, as well.