Rob Ryan

New Edition of Jugs: Part 1

Posted by on Wednesday 15th January, 2014

Over the past few months we have been steadily working on a new edition of jugs here at Ryantown HQ. Rob adapted one of his pieces from his recent solo show ‘There Is Only Time’  to be used on the new jug. Here is an exclusive look at the beginning stages of making the jugs at the studio.

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For the first layer we applied each individual stripe by hand which Tom screenprinted in three tones of blue and yellow. These different tones were placed next to each around the jug to complete the first stage. Rob wanted to initially try a version where we left a space between the stripes and another where no gap was left and the base colour covered the whole jug. We then fired the jugs in our studio kiln.

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There was quite a significant colour change after the first firing as you can see from the images above. The exact colour is something you can never quite control but this allows the process to be quite experimental and exciting waiting to see how they will turn out!  Once the jugs have been fired they are ready for their next layer. Rob’s drawing, which reads ‘ Even though it was the 1000th time we still did it like it was the first.’  was screenprinted in black on to our special decal paper.

 

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The decal is then cut into three parts, the image is quite large so it was easier to apply to the ceramic this way. Carefully we placed the image around the surface of the jug, taking care to smooth out any creases or bubbles which might appear. This will prevent the image from breaking when the jug is fired at such a hot temperature in our kiln.

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I will write a second post soon showing the final stages in the process. The jugs will come with a special screenprinted box and will be numbered in gold lustre on the base too.

Louise Renforth
Studio Assistant