first try

I unloaded a bisque firing this morning and the decal transfer was a success!  This mug was in the bottom of the kiln and fired to a solid cone 04.  Top of the kiln was 05.  This temperature difference is typical for my kiln.

   Below are some tumblers from the same bisque firing waiting to be glazed.  As I mentioned in my previous post, I want to learn how the decal transfers behave with various glazes so I will experiment on these tumblers.

it works!

I've been wanting to try out decal printing on pottery for a while.  When I first noticed other potters using this technique I have to admit I looked at it as cheating.  However, the more I saw, the more I liked, and there is a lot of room for creativity with combining the decals with washes, slip and underglaze designs. The main reason I'm interested in this process ( if it all works out) is it allows me to add a lot of detail to the surface of a pot for much less time than it would take to attempt a similar design by hand painting.  Plus, I've never mastered lettering.  I expect this to be only a small part of my work, but I'll see where it takes me.  I don't know of anyone doing this locally so it took some online studying to learn this technique and I found the tutorials by Linda Arbuckle and Justin Rothshank. to be very helpful.

The printer journey:   I first tried to find a local print shop willing to work with me that had the right kind of printer- black and white laser, as I preferred to give the process a try before committing to buying a printer.  Thought I had one lined up, but once I got the decal paper, my images picked out and edited, and called back to set things up....turns out the boss, who was away when I called the first time, informs me that they actually do not have the right printer for what I want to do.  Next step:  ebay.  Actually I tried Craiglist first, but nothing there.  After much study and obsessing  I chose an HP 1022 refurbished laser printer.

 -Which didn't work at first.  The paper wrinkled and instead of printing my images I got streaks.  After reading online manuals and anything I could find that I thought would help, very little of which I understood, I called the guy I bought it from.  He instructed me to clean several parts- Apparently the ink cartridge should not have been shipped inside the printer.  Some residue from the used cartridge shook loose during shipping. I was skeptical that a little cleaning would do the job, but it printed just fine afterwards.

Some steamboats I plan to use on mugs since this is a river town and home to the Ohio River Sternwheel Festival.

 

 This picture shows the decal applied to a mug.  The mug has been glazed and fired to cone 6, so, before applying the decal this could be consider a finished mug.  It has a white glaze on it with dabs of clear glaze containing robin's egg Mason stain.  To fire on the decal I plan to load this mug in the next bisque firing and fire in the cone 05 to 04 range.  The ink should, should, contain enough iron oxide to leave a permanent image.

I can tell you that the variations in the surface of this mug made it challenging for me to get the air bubbles out when I was laying the decal on the mug.  However, this is the first time ever that I have tried this process so maybe I'll do better after a few more attempts.

I just threw these tumblers/beakers today and plan using them to test different glazes with the decals.  From what I've read, there can be a difference in how well the decals fire depending on what glaze is used.   Once these are dry I'll load them in the kiln for a bisque firing and include the one glazed mug with the decal.  See what happens.