Making Decals/burning Images Onto Clay

[olaria]

i'm interested in making some of my own decals for firing but am unsure how to do this. i don't use decals at all, in the traditional sense. I'd be open to trying them if I knew where to buy them...even vintage ones.

 

What i'd like to do is take some of my photos and create decals from them to be fired onto some mugs and such. i've used lazertran before and the film itself shows up raised on the surface (you can see where I cut around the image). ideally, i'd like the image to almost be burned onto the porcelain...i've seen it done, but it wasn't a situation that I could really ask the artist at that time and now i can't remember who it was. I use cone 6 porcelain and stoneware clay. maybe i misused the lazertran, but am open to suggestions, ideas and such. i don't really want to be screening the images on either, b/c most of the items I want the images on are vertical and not flat enough for screening.

 

Thanks in advance for your help.

[Seasoned Warrior]

I've seen several transfer schemes where individuals used printed graphics from a laser printer or copier and then transferred the image from the paper with acetone (I believe). I frankly prefer screen printing for applying glazes. Screens are very versatile and also allow you to do multiple colors so that you can do color separations like you would for any other printing process. Additionally screens can be designed to accommodate cylindrical or even spherical objects so the shape of the object is not as important as the mechanics of the screen although there would be limitations. Hopefully others will chime in on the different methods they may have used because I find it interesting to be able to transfer images to the ceramic medium.

 

Regards,

Charles