Blue Antiquities

 

Adorned With Decals

Learning to Add Images to Your Enamel Work

Creating Your Own Decals

 

Adorned with Words BlueAntiquites Laura Guenther
Decal Article Belle Armoire Jewelry Sept 1 2015
 

 

 Hello friends!  I am excited to talk about decals today, decals for torch fired enamels.  If you have arrived here from the article in Belle Armoire Jewelry, Welcome to BlueAntiquities! Please follow my blog, leave a comment to this post and you are entered to win a pair of my new

Time Passages Earrings!  Hurrah!  The winner will be randomly selected on October 15th and notified by email, so don't forget to leave your email address with your comment. If you don't want to leave your email, send me an email, LOL

 

So, now for the dirt on decals!  You want to make your own? But how?

Well, you need the right printer or copier.  It must print with a toner cartridge that has 30% red iron oxide in it.  What does this mean in English?  The iron oxide is what is left on your piece after it is fired that leaves the image.  The paper burns away and the red iron oxide is the sepia color from the ink of the toner you see when your piece has cooled. Iron Oxide is an inorganic compound and is one of the main 3 oxides of iron. It is a dark red in color, often called rust.  It is mainly used in older printers, thus making the search for a printer for this process a bit tricky!

 

We will talk more about these printers in a minute, but now I'd like to discuss the decal paper you need.  The decals need to be printed onto a special paper, it is called ceramic waterslide decal paper.  There are several online sites that carry the paper.  There are different papers available.  I have only used one type from one source, so I can only give you direct feedback regarding this paper. 

 

It is from Beldecal.com.  You order clear paper for laser printers.

 It is white backing paper with clear lacquer film. You can order it in different quantities.

It arrives with a thin tissue paper covering on each page,

with directions on how to use it with your printer.

This paper has worked great for me!

The other resources you can check out are decalpaper.com and fired-on.com.

 

Now lets head back to the topic of printers.  This can be an overwhelming task.  From my research, older laser printers work the best for the immersion technique.  Not all old laser printers work.  Many HP and Canon printers and some copiers do work.  The hard part is figuring out just which ones actually have the red iron oxide toner in the cartridge. 

 

The following information was resourced from Rothshank Artworks, click here to go to his website.

 

I have found a Material Safety Data Sheet list for HP printers ( from Rothshank Artworks website) that will show you the information for the toners per printer.  It takes some research. Click here for the list.  

 

Here is a small list of HP printers that will work:

 

HP LaserJet M1212nf MFP

HP LaserJet 1022 

HP laserjet 4L

HP laserjet 5L

HP P1005 laserjet

HP P1006 laserjet

Justin Rothshank has more information on his website about printers and decals, so do check that out.

You can do a little research online to see what you come up with.  Look at forums with artisan groups you are a part of.  Ask around.  There are a lot of tech people who know this stuff.   It takes a lot of research to figure out where to purchase or find one of them.  Check on Ebay.  I have not researched printers and I really don't know about them, in fact my eyes glaze over when talking about gadgets and such things! I have a copier that I bought , not a printer, which I really don't recommend. You have to use your printer and the copier, creating more work for yourself.  I had to replace the toner right when I got it, because of a design flaw with the toner ink, and printing too light.  So I do recommend checking around and finding what works for you.  I don't know specifically about these printers, these are lists of ones that I found online, so don't hold me responsible if they don't have the red iron oxide. There you have it, a disclaimer...LOL

Here is a list of some Canon Printers that I found a long while ago when I was just starting to think about making my own decals.

The following list are the toner cartridges with the iron oxide and the printers they go to. 

HP LaserJet C3900A Print Cartridge - HP LaserJet 4V/4MV series printers
HP LaserJet 92274A Print Cartridge - HP LaserJet 4L/4ML/4P/4MP series printers
HP LaserJet 92298A-X Print Cartridge - HP LaserJet 4/4 Plus/4M/4M Plus/5/5M series printers

HP LaserJet C4092A Print Cartridge - HP LaserJet 1100/1100A/3200/3220M series printers

HP LaserJet C4127A-D-X-XC Print Cartridge - HP LaserJet 4000/4050 series printers

HP LaserJet C7115A-X Print Cartridge - HP LaserJet 1000/1005/1200/1220/3300/3380 series printers
HP LaserJet C8061A-D-X-XC Print Cartridge - HP LaserJet 4100/4100mfp/4101mfp series printers

HP LaserJet CE390A-X-XC Print Cartridge
HP LaserJet Enterprise M4555 MFP, 600 M601, 600 M602, 600 M603 series printers

HP LaserJet CE390A-X-XC Print Cartridge
HP LaserJet Enterprise M4555 MFP, 600 M601, 600 M602, 600 M603 series printers

Here is another link to a page I came across ...http://home.comcast.net/~frankgaydos/Decal-1.html 

I wish that I could tell you to go and buy this printer, and it will work great. But, alas you will have to do a little searching and make your own decisions.

Once you have the printer and the paper, you are ready to print your own decals.  Now, its time to format. This can be overwhelming too.  Basically, you have to shrink images to make them small enough to fit our little jewelry pieces.  There are lots of ways to do this on your computer.

I know it is a little overwhelming to create your own decals, but don't forget there are preprinted decals available to purchase. When I started,  I worked with decals that were preprinted.  It took me a long time before I decided to purchase a printer.  And I had the problems with my toner, that left me with delays, so, just be careful. Use the preprinted decals to practice and see if you are really going to enjoy it.  Adding decals is a little tricky until you get the hang of it, but practice will make you a pro.

Please take a peek at my decals for sale on Etsy and Barbara Lewis is selling them at PaintingwithFireStudio. Painting with Fire offers half sheets with patterns, flowers and antique themes.  BlueAntiquities (Me) offers 1/4 sheets with Vintage images, French romance and flora and fauna.   They are relatively inexpensive to purchase and easy to use.  I hope you take a look at these, I think you will enjoy using them with your enamel work just as I did with the Adorned With Words pieces.

Please feel free to send me a message via email if you have questions, LKguenther@triad.rr.com
I am happy to help of I can!




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 Laura