Last Wednesday’s meeting of TriCity Potters was just exactly what a gathering of potters should be! Board member Pene Hollingworth volunteered to show us all how to go about making monoprints on clay forms. She had the two-hour session carefully planned so that we could all try the process and be finished in time.
Everything we needed for the evening was ready for the twenty or so members attending. Nicole had made 6″+ tiles which were not quite leather-hard. Pene provided a bucket of white slip, squares of newsprint paper, lots of underglazes and some finished samples of monoprinted pots. She expained in detail exactly how to make a design and transfer it to the tile. Of course the technique can be used on 3D shapes but they must be smooth and even to accept the print.
Briefly, she had us make a pencil drawing, outline it with black or dark underglaze and let it dry. Then we painted the image with more underglazes, remembering as we worked that the design would be reversed when printed. When all was dry she demonstrated painting the tile and then the paper images with white slip. When those were no longer shiny she carefully applied the print to the tile and pressed it on with a soft rubber rib.
The comfortable silence as we worked on our projects was rather special.
Then came the big reveal. The now fragile paper had to be carefully lifted from the tile to leave the reversed image. Pene stressed that this technique isn’t about producing a perfect copy but a way of creating a one-of-a-kind surface, with random, interesting variations. Our resulting tiles are good examples of mono- printing and we were all delighted with the experience. I, for one, wound up trying out the technique on a stoneware beaker the next day.
Thank you Pene for organizing and presenting a very useful and engaging evening, and thanks to the volunteer board members and more who cooperated to make sure the events ran smoothly and we completed the exercise.
Next month we will be learning how to transfer prints and photographs to clay, presented by Elizabeth Claridge. Do join us on May 20th at PoMoArts.
Meanwhile you still have time to see the best work of TriCity Potters at Place des Arts in Coquitlam.
