Printmaking and Ceramics - an Experience
![](../images/decals/jingdezhen.jpg)
How do the printed images come onto the porcelain? I often asked me
that. Here I want to show my experience in a Chinese ceramics studio (limited
by my little knowledge on ceramics).
![](../images/decals/jingdezhen_ampel.jpg)
This is Jingdezhen, the capital of Chinese porcelain. Even
the traffic lights are here made from porcelain.
In the Summer of 2009 I participated in a class for printmaking
artists in working with decals at the local studio Sanbao.
![](../images/decals/decals.jpg)
A selection of decals. They are made by printing a pigment
mix, for instance with cobalt, onto a thin paper, by screen printing or like
intaglios from metal plates with a press.
![](../images/decals/meine_abziehbilder.jpg)
Previously I had sent the studio some black-and-white designs
which they had prepared as cobalt decals.
![](../images/decals/arbeit_am_teller.jpg)
I transferred the different elements next or on top of each
other onto the still soft porcelain form.
![](../images/decals/decals_uebertragen.jpg)
For transferring the decal is pushed onto a slightly moistened
area with a brush and carefully pulled off, leaving back the cobalt layer.
![](../images/decals/glasur_brennen.jpg)
The form then is covered with glace and burned.
![](../images/decals/pietzcker_teller.jpg)
Jingdezhen, China, 2009
![Art](../images/blind.gif) |