Decalomania!

We will be meeting primarily in 14C.

It’s crunch time. Keep in mind that anything you’re working on for your final project should be on our shelf to fire by Saturday night. Today I’ll be at Georgetown in case anyone needs to do some printing and Tamara will be downtown. All this week, please don’t hesitate to call, text, or email us if you have any questions or concerns. Also if you are going to need multiple firings this week let us know your needs so we can plan accordingly. Good luck to you all as you approach the finish line!

Hi, all. We’ve decided to stick with the original plan of pick-your-spot class location, take one. However, IF you did not submit a second project last week, you must report to the downtown campus for the first 30-60 minutes of class with Tamara. Then you can come on to Georgetown if you wish.

Class tomorrow was tentatively scheduled for “pick your spot”–work at either campus as needed–BUT since we only had critical mass for looking at 1/3 of your second projects, we decided to make sure we’re all together. Our plan is to meet downtown unless a majority of people email to say they need to be at Georgetown to shoot screens. (Of course if we meet downtown we’ll bring the printing supplies as usual). So please let us know by comment here or email by today at 2:00 p.m. and we’ll schedule.

Hey, all. It was so exciting to see everyone’s progress last week. If you haven’t already, please be ready to hand in your (short! informal!) proposal on the 14th for your third and final project, which will be due at our final class.

Please check the revised schedule if you have any uncertainties, but here’s another reminder:

The second project is due next week, April 21.

So this coming Tuesday, our dear Tamara will be away in Arizona soaking up all kinds of national ceramics community goodness to share with us when she returns. Does this mean it’s a good week to skip class? No way!

For one thing, we have lots of “Project 1″s to look at. Chul’s was still hot in the kiln last week, we had a few absences, etc. So we’re having mini-crit, part 2. Don’t worry, this will not be the kind of crit where you examine your split ends and compose your grocery list.

Those of us who did gather in G’town last week saw some very interesting results courtesy of Michelle’s fearless exploits with both the commercial decals and her own custom decals refired to improve the fit of the glaze used for decal application with the glaze used on the commercial ware. This leads to two important points:

1. Keep in mind that the commercial decals may give you totally unexpected (and lustrous) results. Also, watch out for any sheets marked “glas” or “vetro” or…”glass”. Yep, there are a few glass decals shuffled into the mix. Good news–we can fire them on glass at a very low temperature (cone 022). Bad news–they will blob and run if fired at the same temp as the ceramics decals (cone 018)

2. GLAZE FIT! Michelle’s early experiment with her own custom decals on commercial ware (using the Miller clear) looked great…until it went through the dishwasher. Tamara pressed on by refiring it at a higher temperature–about cone 1. This seems to have resolved the fit issue but it dispersed the pigment in some places to the point of obliterating the image (sad). NEW TESTS are in the kiln (thanks to Matt, who found some glossy cone six clear hanging around the studio, and Tamara and Chul who got the tests in). Let’s see what happens with these before you bust a move on any of your custom decal works in process. Yes, Katie, I said “bust a move.”

Finally, in case you missed the excitement, an updated schedule for the rest of the semester is available in the handouts section. Go on and get it!

Thanks to all of you for working hard yesterday. Tamara will be firing our first round of tests with custom decals today!

You can find the presentation from class, including links to the Otsuka museum and iron oxide transfer videos, in the handouts section.

A few reminders:

Next week (March 3) we’re going to do some wet work with clay in Studio 8 downtown. This will include screen printing directly to clay slabs and it would also be a great time to try out some unfused photocopier iron oxide transfers. If you are able to make some before class next week, that would be great but it’s not required. We do strongly recommend that you spend some time in open studio at Georgetown this weekend if you can (the studio is open between approximately 12 and 5 both Saturday and Sunday) to continue printing decals if you wish but especially to prepare a screen for our class work on March 3–screenprinting on wet clay:

• Prepare a screen for screenprinting directly to wet clay (use one of our class screens)
• Label it with tape: Your Name and “Take Downtown”
• Tamara and I will bring all the screens marked “Take Downtown” downtown for our class March 3 so you don’t have to wrangle them yourselves. Sound good?

And in the glaze hall, and in Studio 8, but we’ll start our class session in 14C. Our agenda includes application of your custom decals with a firing to occur during the week. We’ll also mix up some fresh inks. You’ll also get your “presents” from Maryland China, so that’s something to look forward to. And we’ll talk about more nonfire applications, including Copycal and Lazertran.

Here’s your TO DO list for Tuesday’s class:
1. Finish some decals and bring them to class with you. I know many of you have your Krylon Kamar varnish. If you don’t have any, buddy up with someone, but get this done! You should be spraying your covercoat no later than Monday afternoon. For best results you want two coats with 24 hours between them and 24 hours prior to application (in class Tuesday). PLEASE DO THIS! There’s no faking it through if your timing isn’t right. For complete instructions on applying the Kamar varnish, consult the relevant section in your In-Glaze Decals – Making and Applying them. If you have any questions or uncertainties, you can call or text Amanda.
2. Review the list of “what you should know by now” in the post below and make sure you know your stuff.

Finishing Your Ceramic Decals – The COVERCOAT

As we discovered last week, many of you didn’t get around to reading the scintillating In-Glaze Decals – Making and Applying them, which outlines in detail the process we are using to create custom ceramic decals. If you haven’t, please do. (And thanks to those who did!)

It tells you in detail about the final step of making your custom ceramic decals, specifically the application of the covercoat which we did not yet demonstrate in class.

If you are covercoating on your own, PLEASE refer to this document to see how to do it properly, thus avoiding all kinds of heartbreak.

Ready to see some results?

In addition to continued screenprinting, we’ll cover application of our custom decals next week. If you want to have some decals ready to try out, your options for getting your decals covercoated are twofold:

• Do it at home or school in a very well ventilated place; OR
• We can arrange a time to do it at the Downtown campus on Sunday

Don’t plan on moving your covercoated decals far from the spray site for the first 24 hours. Avoid dust wherever you spray and dry your decals!

A note re: timing

Allow TWO FULL DAYS from the moment the Krylon Kamar Varnish touches your decal paper to when you would like to fire. It takes at least 24 hours for the varnish to dry (48 hours and 2 coats are preferable) and another 24 hours for the decal to dry on the ceramic piece after application.

Decalomania! Recap

So far, we’ve covered three processes:

• Collaging with commercial ceramic decals
• Screenprinting custom decals for ceramic application (to be fired)
• Screenprinting custom decals for metal, wood or glass (to cold cure with acrylic varnish application)

What you should know at this point:

• The anatomy of a decal generally
• How to apply commercial decals to ceramic ware and why you shouldn’t overlap decals without firing in between
• The difference between onglaze and inglaze decals
• Basic screenprinting process from coating the screen to cleaning it when you’re done
• What’s in the ceramic ink we’re using and why it “works”

Final Thought: Supplies

We bought some screen printing and covercoating supplies to help us get started, and those of you who were a little wobbly on supply set-up (tape, mylar, etc.) were graciously supported by your classmates. Great! But you will need to make sure you are personally well supplied for items you will need for screenprinting and covercoating. You can buy your own or arrange to share with your classmates, but please don’t rely on your instructors for the items in the Visual Shopping Guide below. If you have any questions about where to get anything from tabs to Krylon, email Amanda or Tamara!