Rob Ryan

Staffordshire Dog Edition: Part 2

Now the sun is shining in our yard we have seized the opportunity to work on the next stage of our new edition of Staffordshire Dogs. You can read my previous post of them in the making here.

This next step involves hand-painting sections on each dog using our ceramic ink. Rob sketched where he would like the colour applied. The ink is mixed with a little water and applied directly on to the glazed ceramic. As the ink dries it forms a chalk-like texture which allows us to scratch back into it to create some nice textures.

We applied the brown colour and allowed it to dry before painting on the blue sections.

Once all of the dogs are at the same stage and have been fired in our kiln, we plan to paint their collars in gold lustre which will require a further separate firing, as lustre fires at lower temperature.

I love this stage, the hand-painting really brings the dogs to life, the loose mark-making adds character and life to each piece as no two dogs are exactly the same. This stage is a great contrast to the fixed application of the decals. I will continue to document the dogs journey here on the blog as they progress.

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