A question about 'Decal papers, printers and toners'

[Chanology]

Hello everyone! 

I am looking for ceramic decal papers to transfer my own drawings to  my ceramic products. I need to buy a new laser printer first.  I'm researching the printer brand right now and I haven't decided yet. (I think I'll buy HP) I asked for help for toner and printer model from HP's forum page.  They haven't answered yet. 

1) I am currently researching for these papers. They highly recommended some brands and I will buy one of them. These brands:

-mrdecalpaper
-fired-on's papers
-lazertran's papers
-cerprint (rosetta)'s papers
and no-name papers in Aliexpress

Have you ever tried among these brands? Which brand do you recommend? (I can buy on Ebay, Amazon or Aliexpress)

2) What is the minimum percentage of iron oxide in the toner I will buy? I know it's 30%, but does that mean the higher the number the better? 40,50 maybe?

3) I bought cover-oil/yellow varnish. Have you ever varnished your works and fired?

Thank you.

 

 

 

 

 

[Mark C.]

There has been much written on this topic-go to the main all forums page and search decal  or decal papers or printers or whatever

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[Chanology]

Thank you for your advice Mark, but i already did this. It's not the technique I'm wondering about, these are paper brands.  I am curious about the comments and experiences of the artists who use these papers. 

Also, I do not think anyone applied the method I mentioned in my 3rd question. If anyone tries this, I want to learn.
 

[Mark C.]

(Have you ever varnished your works and fired?)

Varnish will burn off in fire even a decal fire but should do no harm

[Fred Sweet]

Chanology-

I’ve made my own decals using china paints and photo resist silkscreens, which doesn’t address your wanting to use a printer to make your decals. However, I used a water slide decal paper obtained from my local silkscreen supply company (don’t remember the brand, but doubt that it would have survived the printer process) and DID overcoat the imagery with a varnish or lacquer to preserve the integrity of the images when soaking the in water prior to applying them to ceramic forms. After top printing, I allowed them to fully harden (a day or so) before the application process to the clay pieces. I did fire slowly through the burnout to allow for complete removal of the carbon residue  during the firing to China paint temperatures.

Hope this is of some help to you.

Regards,

Fred

[Chanology]

1 hour ago, Fred Sweet said:

Chanology-

I’ve made my own decals using china paints and photo resist silkscreens, which doesn’t address your wanting to use a printer to make your decals. However, I used a water slide decal paper obtained from my local silkscreen supply company (don’t remember the brand, but doubt that it would have survived the printer process) and DID overcoat the imagery with a varnish or lacquer to preserve the integrity of the images when soaking the in water prior to applying them to ceramic forms. After top printing, I allowed them to fully harden (a day or so) before the application process to the clay pieces. I did fire slowly through the burnout to allow for complete removal of the carbon residue  during the firing to China paint temperatures.

Hope this is of some help to you.

Regards,

Fred

Dear Fred Sweet; thank you for sharing your experiences. I know a little how to do this technique with screen printing. and I guess I'll try silkscreen for full color. Because full color devices are too expensive. Firstly I'll try it with B/W digital output. then silkscreen. I watched the varnish/lacquer application on Youtube. I hope there will be okay.