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silkscreen on clay (long)

updated mon 30 sep 96

 

Patrick & Lynn Hilferty on wed 4 sep 96

First of all, I need to thank everyone who responded to my question, both
on the list and privately. The responses have been most helpful to me in
trying to get a sense of what I might be getting into and thought I'd post
I've done so far:

Yesterday, I went out and got the Hunt/Speedball photo emulsion, not
because I wanted to, but because the only art supply store open on Labor
Day carried it and nothing else, and because I'm really impatient. Once the
kids are back in school (and I can hear the sounds of my own thoughts) I'll
check out the Ulano products. The Speedball product seems to be water
based, which is good because you can clean up with soap and water, and bad
because every time I try to clean the screen I'm afraid I'll really clean
the screen off and the stencil along with it. I prepped the screen, exposed
and washed it out all according to the instructions last night.

Today, I decided to screen the underglaze directly onto a plaster bat,
apply spot color into parts of the image, then pour slip on top of that to
produce a slab. I was concerned that the underglaze might not release from
the plaster or go through the screen, for that matter, so I tried adding
some Darvan to Duncan CoverCoat underglaze and screened the mixture, using
an old credit card, onto a dry slipcast slab to see if I would get
anything. The result was rough but readable. I then tried to do the same to
the plaster bat. This time I decided to be clever and switched to a window
sqeegie to push the underglaze through the screen. The result was pretty
nasty, but hey, what do I know?

I took a break and went out to pick up some more underglaze and came back
with some Duncan EZ Strokes and a pint of Sherry's Western Ceramic engobe,
as well as a suggestion from Ed Sherry to mix whatever I was trying to
screen with glycerin. The glycerin was suggested as a wetting agent so that
the underglaze wouldn't be sucked dry on contact. Finally, I went back to
using the credit card and dressed the edge square by planing it with a
block plane. So far, the best results have come from the EZ Strokes, mixed
with glycerin and screened with the credit card, though I suspect that the
darvan and the Sherry's engobe can probably work, given more time. Right
now, I think the key to my probems is the credit card, or any relatively
stiff blade with a sharp, square edge to screen the underglaze through
with.

So far, so good.

Patrick Hilferty

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Patrick Hilferty
E-Mail: philferty@earthlink.net
Web: Http://home.earthlink.net/~philferty/
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