1. Den of Angels is closing in August 2026. New account registrations are closed. Please see this thread in Den of Angels news for important information: /threads/the-future-of-den-of-angels.893314/
    Dismiss Notice

Transferring printed images onto LaDoll clay

Nov 17, 2015

    1. So, I finished up my doll plan sketch on the computer and printed out the face using my inkjet printer (which is an HP Officejet somethingorother). The original intention was to just use it to make a graphite transfer of the drawing to the dry clay head base, but then I got to thinking that maybe since it's inkjet that if I placed the printed side down on dampened clay that the ink might come off onto the clay. I tried this a few times without success however, and I'm not sure whether it's just my type of printer or what. Has anyone else had any luck with getting prints to transfer onto the clay?

      Here are the 3 methods I tried: first try, water and I gently rubbed it with a bone fold, second try, rubbing alcohol and the bone fold again and lastly I went so far as to try straight acetone since I know that works for transferring photocopy prints onto nearly anything. On a side note I did discover that if you wet the surface of the clay and rub it with a bone fold through paper is gets really smooth, but I'm not sure how valuable that information is, lol. Anyway if anyone else has had any better luck with this please let me know as it would be so much easier than doing graphite transfers.
       
    2. You need a special type of paper to do that, a thin type, perhaps even plastified, otherwise the paper sucks up the ink and there's nothing to transfer. And press with rubbing alcohol, not water. Even so the results might not be good.
       
    3. I don't think you need a special type of paper, here this guy did it with a regular inkjet printer and copy paper and got a transfer to wet stone clay: http://ceramicartsdaily.org/education/ink-transfers-on-clay/

      Anyway because it worked so well for him, it makes me think that the problem is my printer's type of ink must be different, and these newer inkjets must not be like the old ones. Either way in his article he also states that he has had some luck with xerox transfers and acetone, so I guess to go this route I would need to go make a photocopy of my printout. Beyond that at the very end of the tutorial/article he also mentioned using water soluble markers or even gel pens to trace images onto wet clay, which next time I will give that a try since graphite transfers are too messy for my liking.
       
    4. Alright, I'm certain that technique would never work on the regular printers I've worked with. I think this is the kind of printer where you can get stained if you touch a just printed paper, or make it blurry if you rub.
       
Draft saved Draft deleted