decals – Page 2

Goshen Pottery Workshop, The First

There are some great benefits to living in the Goshen area. On Saturday I experienced another shining example of this at the first installment of the Goshen Pottery Workshop Series. I’ll admit, it was my first pottery workshop so I have nothing to compare it to but the surface class I took last summer… but it was amazing. Not only did I get to spend half a day with some of Goshen’s finest potters, I got to experience 3 hours of the best demonstrations that money can buy. And it all happened practically in my backyard.

The Goods

So the following is my account of this tremendous time. Disclaimer alert: this is mostly from memory so there may be a few things that I don’t remember quite right, or things that I don’t remember at all!

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Working with Decals

I’ve had a chance to try some more decals recently. This time on real pots, not just test tiles. I really like how they look on the Bone White from Mastering Cone 6 Glazes. Even though the Bone White is a little too yellow after a glaze fire with a normal cool down I really like how it looks after going through an extra bisque fire required to fire the decals onto the piece. It becomes less glossy and brighter white. It reminds me a little bit of old paper.

Father’s Day Gifts

These were a big hit during the Father’s Day festivities. I used black and white photos of Q and printed them off on decal paper. They came out pretty well. There is enough detail in the midtones to tell what the subject is but there are a few rough spots. Maybe if the glaze was more glossy the images would be a little smoother? It actually adds to the old paper look.

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Testing Decals

I recently tested decals on my current lineup of glazes. The decals came from decalpaper.com. The test tiles were made from Amaco’s Warm Brown Stoneware, bisque fired and then each dipped in one of my current glazes. After glaze firing each tile to ^6 I applied one of the water slide decals and put the tiles through another bisque fire. The images show the tiles just after I applied the decals and then after the decals were fired on.

: decal test 2

: decal test 3

: decal test 1

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Surface Class Update – 3 Weeks In

I just finished the third week of class at the Goshen Clay Guild. It has been great so far. I’ve met a lot of cool people and learned a few things. We have had one class with each of the three teachers so far.

texture notes

First, Eric Kaufmann (I confess, I spelled his name wrong twice before looking it up) gave us an introduction to the class and talked about crystalline glazes. Then Cindy Cooper subbed for Bob Smoker and gave us a lot of demonstrations and ideas for texture. Last night Justin Rothshank talked about decals. In between demos and instruction, and during lab nights on Thursdays, we get a lot of time to throw on the wheel or work on whatever we like.

pottery shelf so far

I’ve been working with the B-Mix that Eric uses and trying to get used to it. I’ve made little test pieces and catch basins for the crystalline glazes. I can’t wait to learn more about the glazing and firing. I’ve already looked up some ^6 crystalline recipes. The B-Mix has taken some getting used to. It is a lot smoother than the stoneware I’m used to but I get nervous to push it too far.

decal notes

The decals we are going to be using are printed with black and white toner from an HP laser printer. The iron in the print turns a sepia/brown when it is fired. There are also color decals that you can order but they are a lot more expensive to get custom images made. Apparently a little site called ebay is a pretty good resource for finding them though. Maybe I’ll have to take a look and see what’s available. My notes are to the left. Good luck reading them… I’m not even sure I can read them! I was scribbling like mad. So furiously that I broke out into a sweat. For a moment I thought I might have to sit down, but then a girl passed out (!) and we took a break and got some fans. Don’t worry, she was okay after waking up and drinking some water. And I was okay too…

cups with decals

Here are a few cups with decals. The third one from the left was a crystalline piece by Eric. Justin applied some plant decals and refired it to see if it would work without ruining the crystals. Looks good to me! Second from the left is a color decal. The other two are black and white decals. Justin printed out a page of decals for us if we had images ready. I just used some of the images that I used to order my rubber stamps for some of my other projects.

Check back in a few weeks and I should have another update. Happy 4th of July!