Photo lithography on clay - nothing transferred

[VladCruceanu]

I have used the following tools:

- Roller

- Arabic Gum Liquid

- Indian Ink

- Tried two pictures: 1. Printed in color by a laser Xerox. 2. Copied black and white by another Xerox machine.

Made everything as in the video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jUNH6KvYGnk

Tried 2 times with both pictures on soft leather hard clay and nothing transferred.

Please help me understand what I am doing wrong. 

 

 

[PeterH]

What did you do with the Indian ink?

[VladCruceanu]

43 minutes ago, PeterH said:

What did you do with the Indian ink?

I used a wrong ink? What type of ink should I use?

[PeterH]

Lithography is based on the fact that oil and water don't mix. The gum-arabic solution
provides the water-based part, so you need to use an oil-based ink.

A printable description of the process can be found at https://pistrucciartworks.wordpress.com/2011/03/20/photolithography-on-clay/

Regards, Peter

Hope you have more success than I did. Lithography works better with high-contrast images, and sometimes
fudges such as half-toning are required.

[VladCruceanu]

So I will get an ink based on oil. Should I use an inkjet printer? Other mistakes?

[PeterH]

I would suggest starting with DIY ink --  oil+pigment (a mason stain sounds good[1]). [2]
.. and an image with some largish 100% back and 100% white areas.

Everybody seems to say no to inkjet printers. Some [all?] Xerox and Laser printers produce
a fused plastic image that is likely to be good at rejecting water and being receptive to oil.
While inkjet inks may be water-soluble.

After you've applied the gum-arabic solution and let things stand for a while you should
see that the paper in the white areas has absorbed the solution (e.g. looks translucent).
It needs to do this to repel the oil.

Regards, Peter

[1] Use an oxide until you've got the hang of things, if you don't have any to stain hand

[2] Ideally it should be what's known as a drying oil. Several are listed in https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drying_oil.
These can be bought (fairly expensively) as artists supplies. Oils sold for cooking  are cheaper. However as long shelf-
life and optimum drying properties  are mutually exclusive  the cooking oil may be denatured [to prevent it going
rancid too fast after opening]. Personally I would start with something like walnut oil from the local supermarket.
... remember drying properties are pretty academic until you get the transfer process working.

For  production use an artists/woodworkers/decorators linseed oil might be technically better. Up to you to judge
the cost/performance balance. But be aware that  rags soaked in the more drying oils can [and sometimes do]  burst
into flames, and have been the cause of some expensive fires (linseed and tung oil in particular).  [AFAIK keep rags in
a small screw-top jar. If things start to go downhill the oxygen is depleted before  the temperature rises too high.]