Underglaze Transfer

The first assignment was to simply practice the underglaze transfer on a clay slab. After I had finished that we moved on to building some type of form that we would then put underglaze transfers onto. The form had to be something with flat sides as we would slightly dry the slabs before attaching them together. When performing an underglaze transfer, I first sketched the designs I wanted to to put onto my form on newsprint. I then painted over my sketches with underglaze. While that was drying I made and constructed my slabs. When The slabs had been constructed into my form and dried out for a bit I tranferred my designs. To do this, I painted both the clay and the paper with a thin layer of slip then placed the paper on the clay. I had to then dampen it completely with a wet sponge and burnish with a spoon in order for the designs to completely transfer. I chose this shape because I thought that it was a little more interesting than a simple square or rectangular box, but it was still pretty straightforward as well as being potentially useful. 

I started with just some slabs which I rolled out using the slab roller. I then came up with and painted my designs on news print using underglaze. After I had painted my designs I transferred them onto my clay slab by painting a thin layer of slip on both the design and the slab. After that I pressed the design onto the slab and burnished it with a spoon to transfer the design. I then pulled away the newspaper which revealed the design on the clay slap. Mine did not come out very clean but you could see the general idea and shape. I cleaned up the designs a little bit with a paintbrush and underglaze and fired it. I did the same process for my summative project, but the transfers came out much better.

I think overall this project turned out really well. I was nervous about the transfers because they didn't go super well on the practice slabs but it went better than I thought. After being glazed and coming out of the kiln the glaze transfers were pretty fuzzy and blurry but I think it gives it a cool effect. It is cracked on quite a few of the sides, I think that I didn't slip and score the additional pieces that well so it cracked a little bit.