MARKING
ca: MARCAT
es: MARCADO
Marking powders
a) Charcoal powder is a natural product and will burn away when fired; as it has a dark color, use it on light-colored work.
b) Talcum powder is a natural product and will burn away when fired; as it is white, use it on dark-colored work.
Marking designs on to soft clay.
Put the drawing over the clay, draw over the outlines indenting it into the clay or pounce through the drawing into the clay. You can also pounce and mark on with a marking bag using white industrial talcum powder, which will show up against the clay.
Marking designs on to bisque
a) Marking with a lead pencil. Take a design drawn on paper, turn it over and cover all the back with a soft lead pencil. Lay it on top of what is being decorated and draw over the main outlines; this presses the lead on the back and marks the design onto the object prepared for decorating.
b) Marking with carbon paper. Put it between the drawing and the piece to be decorated and draw over the outlines.
c) Marking with a pounced design. Using a marking bag with charcoal powder over a light color or white industrial talcum powder over a dark one
Marking designs on to a fired glaze surface
On-glaze: This is a glaze that has been fired, so rub over the part that has to be decorated with gum Arabic or thin varnish, leave to dry and then mark on the design, previously pounced, using charcoal powder or talcum powder. The gum Arabic also holds the colors as they are mixed with water and do not adhere to a glazed surface.
Marking designs on to a crude glaze surface.
In-glaze: Use charcoal powder to mark a pounced design on to an unfired glaze-base, this will burn away when fired.
Read more about: MarkingTiles – Small / Majolica: 5e – Preparing plates to paint
Marking tiles with codes.
Mark the back of the tiles of a large picture with numbers and letters, so as to know the order in which they have to be laid out. Start at the bottom left hand corner with A1, the numbers go lengthways and letters upwards.
Read more about: Numbering and coding – tile pictures
Marking the plate for the layout
Mark the top, outer edge of the plate with a pencil line, the mark should be directly in line with the center point between the two holes at the back. This lets you know where and which way up the design has to be marked on. Read more about: Glaze-base – Cleaning
Marking signature or trade mark.
On plates and jars the sign is on the foot.
On tiles, it is usually on the right hand bottom corner.
Read more about: Signature
