I hate to admit, even to myself, the extent of my Pinterest habit.  Suffice it to say that I spend too much time reading about ceramics instead of playing with clay.  On the other hand, sometimes I find something I just have to do.

I've read this article at least a dozen times over the last year or so, because it keeps popping up in my Pinterest list.  http://finemessblog.blogspot.com/2014/07/that-one-image-transfer-technique.html.  It talks about the benefits of using a laser printer, because water beads up on the ink and soaks into the paper around it.

This may seem like an irrelevancy, but it's not.  You see, it is possible to make a thin wash of colorants and brush them lightly over the design in a laser print.  The colorant soaks into the paper and doesn't stick to the ink.  Voila!  Instant transfers!

Excerpts from the blog:

Here's what you need:

1. A laser print. Not a photocopy, not an inkjet print. Make it stark black & white - no gray tones
2. Slightly thin underglaze or slip. The thinner it is, the better it will roll away from the toner as, but also the fainter the design will be. This will take some monkeying around with, to get it right.
3. A soft brush. Very soft. A stiffer brush seems to press the slip to the paper too hard.
4. An early-leatherhard piece. 
5. A rubber rib, the really bendy kind
6. A throwing sponge
7. A spritz bottle of water. Very important! Release will be blotchy without it. 
   

Here's what you do:

1. Brush your slip or underglaze onto the printed side of teh paper. One coat only; once the paper is wet, the resist doesn't work as well. Watch the slip roll away from the black areas. If a few spots are recalcitrant, you can blow on them really hard to encourage the slip to move. If the resist doesn't happen, your slip may be too thick.
2. Let the slip get bone-dry.
3. Cut into the shape of the print you want to make.
4. Spritz the surface of the piece so there's a thin sheen of water. Place the paper facedown on the wet surface
5. Spritz the back of the paper. Press repeatedly with a wet sponge. You'll begin to see the image showing through the paper. If there are areas where the image doesn't show, press the we sponge in those spots until it does.
6. Using the rubber rib, smooth the paper to the clay to encourage the transfer. 
7. Peel up the paper. Voilet! or whatever. Image transferred. Mine is still a little blotchy - I'll clean it up with a sgraffito tool later. I think with some practice I can get a cleaner image. 

I tried it with a beautiful design I printed on the library's printer.  The black wasn't truly black, more of a darkish grey.  And maybe my slip was too thick, too.  Whatever the reason, it didn't work very well.  I found myself blowing on the black parts until I was lightheaded, and still too much was unusable.

I read somewhere that mixing equal amounts of Mason stain and a frit can yield good results with beautiful colors.  So here's what I decided to try tonight:

1.  A design with the exposure set fairly dark

2.  1 Tbsp. stain, 1Tbsp. frit, 1 cup water

3.  Flat shapes cut from B-mix without grog, so the surface is almost buttery

As Dr. Seuss said in The Butter Battle Book, "We shall see.  We shall see..."