Monday, April 6, 2015
Decals, Decals, Decals!
A couple of weekends ago I taught a decal workshop at Ruby’s Clay Studio.
The range of design ideas and glazes and clay bodies was huge and I learned so much from seeing where people’s imaginations took them, how decals presented themselves, and how different glazes withstood the firing.
I’d also love to give this workshop again (and again!). In the past I’ve taught it at Creative Growth and in Montana at the Clay Arts Guild. I’d love to teach it at other art studios as well as to groups of non-ceramic artists, where either I’d supply the ceramics, or we work with commercial ceramics. If you have ideas of where to teach, please let me know!
Ceramicists, check out this technical page,where I’ve listed everything from where to buy decal paper to troubleshooting glaze inconsistencies.
More decals in action are on my ceramics page and for sale on Etsy.
Wow Liz, so much fun! Such nice pieces emerged. I appreciate your generosity in sharing this! Thanks for the pictures too. Your Miles bowl Coco, it’s a keeper!
Glad you enjoyed it, Carol! And thanks so much for taking pics of the workshop in progress. I love your decal birds.
Was at Goodwill, thought these pots could sure use some decals 🙂
While Decalomania was a clay workshop, the actual process was different from doing pottery for me. I think Coco mentioned how calm and soothing decalling was- kids in art class. Select images, layout, print, plan out placement, arrangement, cutting, slipping on; all this can be a separate craft in of itself, kinda feels like scrap booking pots. Thankfully, Sensei Liz did the hard part of layout and printing –arigato, danka, graci!
While throwing and hand building are fun, sometimes the creation part can be stressful as the output doesn’t always turn out as planned. Drat! Plus it takes sooo looooong…. But with decals, new life and love can be breathed again on recycled pots by folks who may not even be “into” ceramics. The instant gratification, accessible nature kinda reminds me of those painting pottery workshops. If I had known decaling before, I might have skipped all the agony of learning to throw, argh! Liz Sensei, your next early retirement plan: Decalomania startup! Thanks again for a wonderful Worthy workshop.
Tony, thank you for your awesome and encouraging comment! : ) I love the way you described the process as “scrap booking pots”.