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Thursday, January 06, 2011

The great reveal - Zentangle on polymer

I decided to try two different types of image transfers. Both were printed on a laser printer, as toner works far better than ink jet. I have heard of options for ink jet users - but never paid it much mind as I have a toner based printer anyway. If you have any links to share for ink jet users, please feel free to comment below.

In both instances I used Kato White Clay. I've got to admire you Kato Clay users out there....It is not easy to condition, but once you've got it conditioned - it really has a nice feel and workability.

Both were heated in the oven for 20 minutes @ 300F.
Both were applied to unbaked clay.
I used regular decent quality laser printer paper (the $10 a ream variety, not the super cheap copy paper)
To apply either - add a few drops of transfer medium to clay, then carefully burnish the paper onto the clay. I was a little more generous with the oil, and applied it both under the image, and over top of the image.

Test 1 - Image transfer using Kato clear liquid clay

You'll notice that the paper did not come off cleanly. I picked as much off as I could, then ran it under warm water while rubbing with my fingers. One of them smudged a bit, but not the other. This was most likely caused by not baking long enough. I think a few extra minutes would do the trick. You'll also notice that they are now pinkish in tone. Not quite what I was hoping for.





Test 2 - Image transfer using eucalyptus essential oil
The paper pulled off of these easily, and cleanly. Nice! They are still pink though - again not what I was hoping for.




Using Diamond Glaze on both
I haven't yet had a chance to let these dry, but the image is staying put with no lifting or smudging of the ink.  This part at least was successful. Diamond glaze, or resin should work fine with the image transfer method.  I still need to figure out how to do with with nice clean black lines though.


Edit: I just realized that the pink tones are where I had shaded my zentangle!  I'll try it again with a tangle that has not been shaded at all. Doh!  My laser printer is a colour laser - it would have used another colour to obtain the shading.


2 comments:

Gail Davis Bryant said...

Thanks for sharing all this, Jen. As someone who has been thinking about giving image transfer a try, your blogs are really helpful. Nice zantangles!
Gail

Susanna Originals said...

Since honeysuckle is the newest "in" colour, Jen, your pink is perfect. Gee, I just heard of zentangle today and now I'm finding it all over the place!