My continuing mission.

I got my Picard mug made today. There are some fixes I'd like to make, and I think I might do a second attempt at this, but I'm pleased so far.

I used a monoprint transfer technique - I painted my design onto paper with black underglaze, painted white slip over the image and onto the clay I wanted to print, and then put the image face down on the slab of clay and rubbed the back. Voila! A nice, clean(ish) print. Some of the black peeled a bit, so it will need a touch up later on, but I really like this method of transferring drawings. I'd like to try making some screens in the future, so I can make multiple decals instead of painting each individual image by hand. On my next mug, I'll take some pictures of the process so you can see how it's done.

I printed both images onto a slab of clay, cut out the image on the slab, and attached it to my mug so the image is raised. The slab is a bit thicker than I would have liked though. Next time I'd like it to be nearly paper thin if possible, so the mug isn't so clunky. I know I could print directly onto the mug, but curved surfaces are tricky, and I like the idea of a raised image.

Once the mug dries a bit more, I plan to carve "Tea, Earl Grey, hot" into the Federation logo. I meant to include it in the print, but I would have had to flip the lettering so that it didn't print backwards, and I didn't want to be bothered today.