More liquid clay experiments

My initial liquid polymer clay experiments (28-Dec-2021) were interesting, but in my first attempt in practice the stencilled clay has very little impact (14-Jan-2022). There is promise, the concept of a larger / clarifying / extending image stencilled on more complex cane patterning remains intriguing. But more work is required. Time to revisit more monoprinting techniques.

Some homemade stamps from past print-making, with liquid clay dabbed on with a cosmetic sponge:

A stamp made with some looped string glued to stiff cardboard and varnished.

This stamp was made from a piece of foam mat, heated, then impressed with a wooden block

Textures from a collotype sampler plate (30-Dec-2015), again with liquid clay sponged on:

The original plate, using modelling paste on mountboard as a base

This section uses a piece of mum’s wedding dress

Here a scrapper was dragged through the paste

A gelatine plate was used with a stencil, again with liquid clay applied by sponge:

right to left
* yupo stencil on top then pressed clay on (+ve)
* stencil pressed on clay – transferred on (-ve)
* clay on geli – a little/faint ghost

Using plastic with a corrugated surface as a stamp

Liquid clay was put on the geli plate, some wool pressed in, and then the wool pressed onto the clay

The shadow image left on the geli plate was captured.

I did try a couple of other monoprinting techniques, in particular a variant of backdrawing, but wasn’t satisfied with the result. My method was to sponge the clay on thin plastic, then place that side down on a clay sheet and press through – a little like using carbon paper. Instead of just getting lines where pressed, the whole area of liquid clay immediately transferred. I should try leaving the prepared plastic overnight before use.

Next attempt – silkscreen printing.

Printing through silk screen; plant material as “stencil”. Liquid clay pushed through with old membership card.

I tried to wash the screen quickly – alcohol then soap and water. Traces of liquid clay remained. Not something to repeat. Plus I should have washed and dried screen before using it – bits of dust and dirt were left on the clay.

The screen did what I hoped in terms of keeping plant material in place.

A day later came the next layer of fish imagery experiment. This time some polyester organza in an embroidery hoop worked well as the “silk screen”, and was easy to clean up.

• Dabbing rather than scraping [with credit card] to spread colour made some differences
  • more flexible for colour placement
    – think this is a key outcome of technique
  • less of indent left in clay
    • if want, could pre-press with acrylic block
      – would probably help definition of colour
  • difficult to get colour into previous indentation
    • if want, could hand apply later.

I later realised the fish is upside down.

Another overnight wait, then colouring the fish.

Used “negative space” stencil to add (upside down) fish)
+ cocktail stick to ease colour into impressed lines of plants.

• Very little ink picked up on back of stencil – happened to be shiny side of freezer paper, which may be a factor

I really wanted to be able to pick out lines for definition. Time for a side experiment.

• oddment of clay
• black ink [dabbed] onto (2 day old) weed.
  onto clay and held with improvised embroidery hoop while pressed – like it!

I also tried decanting some black liquid clay into a small bottle with a gutta nib (from batik work many years ago). I thought this would give a finer line. It looked promising at first, but soon became a big fail.

Inked plant material, ink on thread, other random improvised stamps, the gutta nib lines – all beaded on the surface.

So far I had used a few pieces of scrap clay, mixing in the liquid clay and re-rolling after each experiment. It all ended in the bin.

After a few days of grumbling around, a new plan:

Next fish scene:

• colour on weeds. pressed in.
• brighten colours with alcohol inks.
• get “outlines” using +ve and -ve stencils, slightly out of alignment.

• fish right way up.
• smoother “slump donut” baking

Day 1

• white top sheet on scrap base.
• weeds and violet liquid clay dabbed on. Used acrylic block to push into clay
• yellow liquid clay + sunbright yellow alcohol ink
• looks fabulous

Day 2

• Both colours faded a bit as they dried out – more pronounced in the violet, which didn’t have the alcohol ink boost.
• organza not as tight – some nice texture
• bigger “edge gap” on large fish (stencil a heavier card – relatively)
• layering on yellow doesn’t make much sense, given effectively no white retained.
  • although “proper” blue around weed
• blue liquid clay + sapphire blue alcohol ink

?? another idea – texture clay to manipulate colour later added.

Day 3

• straight red liquid clay – want it paler (distanced)
• tried threads-as-stencil to add definition
• looked odd, so used alcohol on cotton bud to add to body shape, eye, mouth

–> uneasy un-balance in level of texture / detail and graphic nature.

Day 4

• red of big fish faded overnight
• small fish – red liquid clay + chili alcohol ink
  -ve (stencil doesn’t quite fit +ve
• tried to make thread shaping clearer
• want to hold nerve and do black edge tomorrow as planned experiment.

Day 5

• Small fish with dual stencils
• large fish done without stencils, using cotton bud

I much prefer the line achieved on the small fish

I wanted to introduce some distortion and slumping in baking – suggesting movement in the water. A rough donut of foil was wrapped in old T-shirt fabric, and the clay pushed in gently.

Final sample:

Lots of lessons, both positive and negative. Lots of avenues to explore. Perhaps the biggest problem for me is the wait between steps, not wanting to smudge layers. If I worked in a more production-like mode, for example building inventory for a market stall, I could work on multiple items at each stage, or have multiple items at different stages of the process. But for me at the moment, making is more an adjunct to thinking. Plus some of this seems to be working against the nature and possibilities of the clay rather than taking advantage of the medium. The more exciting possibility is to use just one or two of these ideas at a time. There’s a lot of flexibility to add my own imagery that I’ve developed over years, rather than relying on commercial stamps and stencils.