Lithography Transfer Printing on Clay with Jennifer Turnbull

This one-day, hands-on workshop, run by Jennifer Turnbull, will cover how to transfer images onto clay using a lithography transfer printing technique. Known as the “poor man’s” lithography process, this technique can be used in place of screen printing or other transfer techniques.

Participants will be guided by Jennifer through transferring a photocopied image onto a clay surface, which then can be fired, with or without glaze.

Lithography transfer can be used on coloured slip, leather hard clay, either tiles or vertical surfaces, or on soft clay which can be manipulated and shaped after printing.

Attendees are required to bring a selection of photocopied images of varying sizes (with a white edge around the image to hold). Images on paper must be the result of a photocopy with toner, not bubble jet (home) printer. The properties of the photocopy ink are essential to the success of this process. Line drawings, strong black and white contrast photos will work the best. If possible, please make several copies of each image, as back-ups. The nature of the process will mean that a reverse copy of the chosen images will be transferred onto clay. So, if the images include words, or have a preferred layout direction, they will need to be reversed using image editing software, before they are printed and photocopied. A printer will be available for those unable to print their images before the workshop. Image files should be saved on a USB stick for ease of transfer. If possible, attendees should also bring a rubber rib.

This workshop is suitable for beginners.

Visit our website to find out more about Nelson Clay Week and to view Jennifer’s bio.

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