DECORATING CHINA

Waipa Post, Volume XXIV, Issue 1638, 7 May 1925, Page 7

DECORATING CHINA

PUTTING IN THE PATTERN,

(By Frederic 'Hutson, in the Daily Mail.)

“Look at the beautiful decoration on that china. However do they get those lovely designs?” This is a question one often hears asked by people as they stand looking at a display of china, and perhaps many others have asked the same question at one time or another. Many of the patterns are painted on by hand, but the majority are put on by means of transfers, such as children delight in, although, of course, in this case the transfers are specially prepared. Some designs are on befdre the article is “glazed,” as the beautiful shiuy finish is termed. Others are put on after the glazing has been done. This second method is most generally employed for articles that will be used more for ornaments. For articles in daily use, such as dinner ware, the underglaze method is better, as the pattern is protected by the glaze from being scratched or washed off. 'Making the transfer is quite a delicate operation. First of all a copper plate must be prepared with the pattern engraved on it. The printer then fills the engraved lines with colour mixed with oil. All surplus colour is carefully rubbed off so that only the lines retain any colour at all. Then a peice of tissue paper, prepared with water size, is laid on the plate, and the two are passed through a roller press.

When the tissue is removed from the plate the pattern is found printed on it in sticky oil colour. This transfer is then placed on the article to be decorated, and rubbed well to make it stick. The article is then placed in a bath of water, which washes off the tissue paper, but has no effect on the oil colour design, which is thus left on the china.

The next step is “firing”; the article is placed in a kiln and “fired” or baked at a low red heat. This drives off the oil and fixes the colour in the design. The article is now ready for glazing. This is done by dipping it in the “dipping tub,” where i£ receives a nice even coat of liquid glaze. From there it is taken back to the oven again and fired at a much greater heat until the glazed is fixed with the pattern showing underneath. Transfers are used in a similar way when the pattern has to be put on top of the glaze, but now a much fuller range of colours can be used, as the heat required to fit the colours is not nearly so great as in the operation of glazing.