Rebecca Bradley on wed 21 jan 04
Hello,
I was wondering what exactly is the oil in an oil based ceramic ink? I
want to make my own inks to screen-print on to decal paper. Also, do Mason
Stains, or similar, work for colorants?
Rebecca Bradley
Fredrick Paget on wed 21 jan 04
>Hello,
>
> I was wondering what exactly is the oil in an oil based ceramic ink? I
>want to make my own inks to screen-print on to decal paper. Also, do Mason
>Stains, or similar, work for colorants?
>
Rebecca Bradley
Bel Decals ( http://www.beldecal.com/ceramic.cfm ) sells this
goop. It is a thick almost pasty liquid and I don't know what is in
it and they are not telling. It is probably just a sort of oil base
slow drying paint without pigment or filler. Will require gallons of
paint thinner to clean your screens and squeeges after printing.
The catch is they sell it in a 5 gallon can so if you buy it you have
a lifetime supply. Instead of this I found that my local ceramic
supplier Clay People in Richmond, CA , have a water based product for
making screen ink from frited stains that they sell in pints. Don't
know if this will work for decals because you have to soak the decal
in water to get it off and that might dissolve the water base medium.
Some water base stuff becomes waterproof once dried so there is hope
. I haven't tried it yet. If you use the special decal paper called
laser print decal paper it has a thin plastic substrate over the
water slide glue layer and that may support and protect a water base
paint if it is cover coated.
Mason stains by themselves would not work well if at all. Most of
them would rub off, unless you put clear glaze on in a second
firing.You need to add a frit to them and ball mill it down to an
intimate mix. Then there is the question of what cone to fire them
to. Decals are usually very low fire (cone 018) and your frit would
probably have lead in it to get this effect. I would rather not be
mixing and milling it . There is nothing to say however that you
couldn't make higher fire decals without lead by firing the decals
to say cone 04 to 6 without loosing too much color.
Bel sells these lo fire frited colors too but I don't know in what
quantities. They warn that they contain lead.
There is an Australian outfit called NEHOC that sells ceramic inks
for screen printing in small amounts and they have a web site:
http://www.nehoc.com.au/shop . I
think that they are moving right now and are temporarily shut down
until February.
NEHOC is a dealer for the Japanese RISO Print GOCCO ceramic kit that
makes small silk screens from laser prints using a device that shoots
a couple of special flash bulbs to image the screen. I have tried
this device and it works but the screens are pretty small - about 4 X
6 inches. Print GOCCO kits for paper prints are available here in
art stores but they don't have the ceramic kits here in USA yet. Many
of the supplies are the same but the screen holders are more
waterproof in the ceramic kit. Then there are the ceramic inks and
transfer paper etc.
I just bought a 5 gallon can of Bel's cover coat (which is also
needed as a final coat on the decal) for $180 delivered and it is
more than a lifetime supply for me since I am no spring chicken. If
anyone needs a gallon of this we could talk deal.
Fred
Fred
--
From Fred Paget, Marin County, California, USA
fredrick@well.com
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