A friend of mine has been creating decorative plates using cut vinyl images applied to ceramic plates. They look gorgeous but obviously lack functionality. I’ve also been interested in screen printing onto ceramic plates but hit a similar issue of the inks I know and love being prone to damage.
Is there any sort of glaze that can be applied on top of it that would make it washable/safe for eating on? Would it require baking it in the kiln?
I haven’t done any fired arts before outside of childhood stuff, so I’m a complete newbie to this.
Since the seems to involve ceramics, I am kibitzing a bit outside my wheelhouse here so take it with a grain of salt.
But…I find it hard to believe anything involving vinyl would survive a firm kilning. Unclear to me if the goo used in screen printing would either.
I believe applying several thin coats of polyurethane or clear epoxy resin (assuming plates are pretty flat) would work, I would guess. Both will fully cure to a food safe finish, although I don’t think would stand up to a lot of knife-n-fork abuse, i.e. regular dinner plate usage.
As always, some simple tests with non-important pieces, or bespoke test pieces, are advisable.
I am a beginner but I would use an underglaze and then fire it in the kiln. As long as you know that the plates you are using can be fired safely in the kiln. If I were you, I would go to a few fired arts classes and learn how to make your own plates out of the proper clay so you know they will hold up in the kiln or find a potter to make bisque plates for you. I read somewhere that you can screen print underglaze, it’s on my list of things to play with eventually.
If you want an ‘all perfectly the same’ look you can purchase bisqued plates (available from American Ceramic Supply in Fort Worth). Another option would be to slipcast. Hand thrown plates are really cool but you are looking at making 24 to end up with 12 that match. Plates are tricky but a worthwhile time investment to learn. If you really jive with that handmade, individualistic look, you can begin handbuilding from slab very quickly (as always, everything is better with practice!).
As far as detailed glazing, you have a lot of options! A vinyl cut or lasered stencil can be used with underglaze (thinned if necessary depending on level of fiddliness) or oxide stain. @Julie-Harris is right on that you can screen print glaze onto ceramic. Another very cool option that I want to experiment with down the road is using the laser. You can apply metal oxides to glazed pieces and then laser your image, fusing the oxide into the glass. If you want to dig into any of these options, let me know and I can help figure out what might work best for your image types and surfaces.
The thing to look for if you want to do this a mid-range number of times is that we do communal firings at cone 05-04 (~1900) and cone 6 (~2200). If you want to do a one-off aberrant firing, we can make that happen. If you want to do several kiln loads and make a groovy pile of plates, we can also work that out. But if you just want to make some and drop them off to be fired, then those are your two ranges to be looking at for compatibility.
To get some ideas with good video, check out Ceramic Arts Network from the American Ceramics Society, it’s a great repository of knowledge!
No worries! Ceramic Arts Daily for the win, right? Even if I don’t dig the specifics of whatever they are rocking, I like the kick in the pants to try something new. (That said I only manage to be experimental one time in ten, heh. I’m a sucker for another comforting bowl.)
I would have to disagree with cmcoper on making some slipcast that all match. Slipcast from a plaster mold are very, very easy to make. I would be happy tell you about the process.
Underglazes and oxides do not flow (move), they are a great option for bisque stenciling and screen printing. Perhaps one of our screen printing instructors will have info on printing on a curve?
A Laser may not reflect the lines you want to have. I noticed the sample John Gorman use to keep by the laser’s, it has micro chips, the lines were a little choppy. Maybe someone with advanced laser skills could get the lines sharper and less choppy. The laser is not food safe for interior patterns, it exposes the bisque, allowing bacteria to get in.
My input would be slipcast or thrown plates with stencils. Strokes and Coats on bisque, or on top of a glaze that will not flow (move). I love love love Strokes and Coats! It act like a glaze, and works like an underglaze. It stays right were you put it.
For slipcast molds or pre-made bisque, a really cheap option is EBAY and Esty, but you take the risk of hard spots when buying used items. I have had really great luck with buying bisque on Ebay and Esty.
You may also want to visit Mary at M&W Ceramic’s in Garland for pre-poured greenware. You can have fired free at DMS.
Mary Rocks, I should see if I can talk her into a DMS Discount??? hummm
If you see me in MakersSpace I will be happy answer any questions you may have.
Pottery is sooo much fun, I hope to see you in our corner!
Oh! Sorry if I wasn’t clear on that. Separate sentences. Slipcast will give you awesome matched plates. Thrown plates are trickier to match unless you use a jig or are really snazzy.
I don’t know if this is an option on pottery plates (maybe??) but on china plates you can decal, then fire. There are ways to make decals. You’d have to research. There are companies that will make them for you but I imagine that’s large quantities (my mom had custom ones made for one of our family businesses when I was a kid, so fuzzy on details).
Anyway, I think I’ve seen things on the internet about how someone could make decals for firing on dishes and such and it intrigued me and stuck in my mind. If there’s good info out there, it’d be suitable for firing on your projects (I think it mainly needs a clear glaze to be applied to. Then there’s a whole thing with kiln temps etc, so who know if this is practical at DMS). then you could have easily repeatable artwork and the actual application once you have a decal is stupid easy. I did a million of them as a kid. Easy peasy.
Might be worth researching. And assuming it could be applied/fired on stuff at DMS, maybe there’s companies out there that would take your artwork and do smaller quantities.
Decals, I completely spaced on decals. You can actually make your own if you have an old printer that has the right kind of ink. @Shirley knows about this method, it’s very easy and stable.
Cool. I figured there’s was much updated technology than the hoops it took to get custom images 40 years ago.
@glukkake
And to be clear on why decals would be a good answer on this project…when firing a decal applied to a plate, etc, the decal pigment and the glaze get all melty (technical term) in the kiln and become one. Once fired, you’re good. The image is PART of the glaze. Nothing further needed.
The CAC in Dallas randomly has 1 day workshops on making decals with a printer. But they are expensive workshops. I have several friends that have taken it and and their work was beautiful. They made their own original art work type decals.
Ceramic decals can also be custom made for you at - theceramicshop.com. You can send a photo, or they will guide thru the process of making custom art work type decals.
Decals are fired at a very low temp, and are beautiful.
Oooo! That’s really neat. I believe she’s using vinyl so she can place on foil metallic images onto the plates, but I wonder if anything can be done with the decal paper either still using the vinyl or by foiling with a screen.
I’ll need a bit to go back through alllll the information you’ve all dropped on me! And I might try to see if I can set up my own tests for the near future.
@cmcooper0 did you mean that you can use any paint directly on the plate (that came fresh out of casting), then cover with an underglaze? Or could you put one layer of underglaze, let it dry, then build up more?
I really ought to come by sometime - I’m usually there late in the evening during the week when picking up a class.
I would be cautious about using non glaze, non food safe paints/substances when you plan for the item to go into the kiln. It could just burn out or it could interact poorly with your glaze coat (prevent it from adhering to the ceramic and cause glaze crawling). There are exceptions to this.
If I were going to stencil or screen an image on, I would use underglaze or an oxide stain to keep your image lines sharp. Then you could follow up with a glossy or matte clear glaze. I prefer gloss for food use personally. You could do multiple passes to apply different colors but you’ll need to pay attention to the chemistry in doing so. What you see is not what you will get in a lot of cases, the colors develop due to the heat/frits/metals/minerals.
If you are making your plate, you can use your stencil or screen to go directly onto the item while it is green (unfired). Everything then shrinks during the bisque (first firing). Or you can do the first firing to your item which then gives you a more sturdy surface (still delicate though) to apply your image, finish with a clear coat, and then it goes through glaze (second firing) shrinking a little more. If you purchase partially done items, then those are already bisqued. Your shrink rate will depend on the clay body you use and is something you should look out for when making decisions.
For metallics, that’s usually treated as an overfire. You make and glaze your piece, process it through normally and then add your lustre for an additional, third, low temperature firing. If Fired too high, it sinks into the glaze, too low and it doesn’t adhere. This is really broad information though and there are (I’m a broken record here!) exceptions. There are some really cool metallic decals out there that you can essentially fuse onto glass or ceramic.
If you like the idea of using a printed decal method, drop a note to @shirley, she’s got fistfuls of info on that and it’s really cool. You’ve got a lot of groovy options there that make it easy to place, layer, alter etc. You can use old HP laser printers, you can screen print to paper and then transfer, potter’s tissue, etc. Decals are easier to apply to greenware (unfired) Ceramics.
While Christy was pretty clear in her reply, let me say again that the “painting” that’s been talked about is strictly with glaze-type stuff. Regular paints will burn right off. The inks folks have been talking about are probably mostly metals. Metals just fuse on, and are the coloring for most of the stoneware glazes.
possible solution: paint on the first coat of glaze in one color, then, after it’s fired, aply the vinyl stencil, paint on the second color glaze, remove the vinyl, fire, then a third layer of clear glaze on top. something like this
Speaking in generalities, most of the glazes we use require 3 painted coats to properly develop their color. The Stroke-and-coats will give a translucent color with one coat, but you have to know your color, and probably fire them at the low-fire temps that they’re really designed for. I went for translucent on a plate I was glazing, but it was one that faded a bit at Cone 6, so I only wound up with the barest tint of pink, instead of an all-over translucent pink.
While this might work, it would definitely be something I’d do in test tiles first before putting on my final piece. They may well be talking about something like a Stroke-and-Coat here, though. Most of the Cone 6 glazes we’ve got will produce a different color if you layer one on top of the other. We generally consider that a good thing, and many of us are layering out the wazoo, but it could be a surprise if you’re expecting one color, and you got a different color.
