Do you paint them on?
…or other variations of these questions are the most common ones I get.

The answer is they’re ceramic decals that are either screen printed or digitally printed, not on any old printer but with special colours in special printers. For the very decorated beakers above, I’ve used open stock transfers, cut up in hundereds of little pieces and then applied onto the ceramics - piece by piece and then they’re fired.

Ceramic decals have been used by the ceramics industry for several decades and in the last ten years or so, they’ve become more widely used by studio potters. One of the first potters I came across who used ceramic decals in her work was Agneta Spångberg (below). You can find her work through Swedish ceramics and glass cooperative Blås & Knåda.

Open stock ceramic decals can be bought through for instance Terra-Nova decals in the US. But if you want to use your own originals there are also small companies that does this, I know of for instance Pamela Moreton in the UK and I have a very good printer in Sweden that does mine. A good site for finding and sharing ceramic related information like this is clayart - check it out for decal suppliers for instance.

Without going into too much detail, here’s the process of screen printing:
To make a screen print, one needs an original image. The quality of your original will reflect on your print. The image is transferred over to light sensitive film and applied on to the mesh of a screen.

Engobe colours mixed with a (preferably) water based medium are pressed through the screen and onto a print paper. When the print is dry, a cover coat is printed on top of it.

After the cover coat has dried, the print is dipped in water and soon the cover coat will lift the print off the paper and it can be applied to the ceramic surface. The goods are fired up to around 800 degrees C.

I mentioned above that decals can also be digitally printed. The advantages of digital printing compared to screen print are the possibility to produce short production runs cost effectively as well as the print quality and resolution of for instance a photograph. I’ve had some digitally printed decals made by Digital Ceramics in the UK.

Whether you use screen printed or digitally printed decals, you need to do some tests to see how the prints work with the goods you are applying them to – ask for samples and try them out before ordering.

One can have lots of fun with ceramic decals, they can be cut up and applied where your hands or tools can reach. Why not spruce up your old china with some modern print? Improved crockery by Esther Derkx:

Screen printing is really only skimming the surface of what can be done with ceramics and print and I’m sure I’ll come back to the subject in future posts. If you want to read more at once, here’s the book for you: Ceramics and Print by British ceramicist Paul Scott.

I’ll be back in two weeks with some tips on Potter’s fairs to visit in the summer!

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