Rob Ryan

Staffordshire Dog Edition: Part 1

‘All we can do is live from day to day and I want to grow old with you until my fur goes grey. And my paws have wrinkled up and failed. All we can do is live from day to day.’

Following the success of our recent editions of Staffordshire cats I am very excited to reveal the initial stages in making our first edition of Staffordshire dogs. The dogs will be a small release of only five pairs, so they are very special.

To begin, Rob mapped out how the dogs would look using cut pieces of paper and drawing directly on to the ceramic with black felt tip pen. Once he was happy with this he could then draw out these sections ready to be screenprinted.

The decals were quite tricky to apply given that the surface of the dog molds is quite uneven, especially their furry chests! The dogs required a further firing in our kiln to patch over any sections of decal that may have split or cracked during the first firing.  This inital decal layer was three tones, light grey, medium grey and black.

I will write a further post soon detailing the next stages in their process, which will include some delicate hand-painting and more visits to the Ryantown kiln.

If you are interested in being added to our waiting list for future editions of Staffordshire cats and dogs please email me at louise@robryanstudio.com.

Louise Renforth
Studio Assistant