I use a technique involving slip-covered newsprint paper to transfer my designs onto clay. This process allows me to blend my interests in drawing, printmaking, painting, and ceramics. To achieve this, I create screen prints of my drawings, then use thick underglaze to print the outlines onto newsprint paper. I fill in the designs with colored slips, working from the foreground to the background. Then I press the newsprint paper onto the clay surface, resulting in a unique one-time print known as a monoprint.

This method gives my designs a weathered appearance on the red clay foundation, with the transfer marks of folds and wrinkles adding to the aesthetic. I enjoy the spontaneous nature of these marks and the slight misregistration of line and color, which offer insight into the creation process.

I mix graphic surfaces with unglazed clay surfaces through a range of building techniques including wheel throwing, hand building, and slip casting. The decoration is all applied to the greenware stage of the process, when the clay is wet. After the first firing pieces are wet-sanded. Wet sanding the pieces gives the glaze a smooth surface to adhere while knocking off any slip-bits that did not fully adhere. The glaze is then poured or brushed on, leaving some areas of the clay bare.

To learn more, please check out the article "Drawn and Transferred," originally published in Pottery Making Illustrated, September/October 2018. http://potterymaking.org. Copyright, The American Ceramic Society. Reprinted with permission.

I also teach online workshops on my process which are downloadable to be enjoyed at your learning speed.

Additional links to some my favorite tools.