Rob Ryan

I OPENED MY HEART CERAMICS

Posted by on Monday 1st April, 2019

It may not look very spring like here in the UK at the moment, but we’ve been busy at Ryantown HQ working on some beautiful ceramics for spring time which we’re very pleased to be able to show you in more detail here.

If you follow us on social media, you may have seen that we recently released these ‘I Opened My Heart’ ceramic mugs. The mugs are inspired by Rob’s ‘Windy Tree’ screenprint, which is one of our most loved prints but is very large, we thought it would be nice to make something smaller for people to use every day.

‘I Opened My Heart’ Screenprint.

Each product begins its life as a sketch, which is then scanned onto the computer and turned into artwork. You can see an example of the final art work for the mug text below.

Once we’ve got the artwork filled and ready to go, Josh, our printer, screenprints the designs in a special ceramic ink onto decal paper and then covercoats them to fix, you can read more about this process here.

The films are then cut up and soaked in water before we apply each element by hand to the pot.

These particular mugs took quite a while to decorate as they each have five separate pieces to apply, the loop pattern around the inside were particularly difficult. We worked with our brilliant work experience student Briege to get them all finished in time. You have to be careful to make sure there are absolutely no air bubbles in the decals, as these will pop in the kiln and make a hole in the design.

The mugs then dry on our production shelves before being fired overnight.

Ta da! The final product is a glossy black and white ceramic mug with delicate yellowy green details. Each mug reads:

“I opened my heart to the wind And it wrapped its arms around me. I opened my heart to the air and it lifted me up and rushed all around me filling me up with joy and life until I thought I might go POP! But caught between the land and the sky nothing could compare to the day when I opened my heart to you.”

‘I Opened My Heart’ ceramic mugs are available here.

Alongside the mugs we have been working on a matching ceramic side plate with a similar design. Below is the original artwork that Josh uses to print from.

The decalling process is the same as the mugs it’s just a different shaped surface, each decal takes around 30 minutes to apply by hand.

Each plate reads:

“I opened my heart to the wind And it wrapped its arms around me. I opened my heart to the air and it lifted me up and rushed all around me filling me up with joy and life until I thought I might go POP! But caught between the land and the sky nothing could compare to the day when I opened my heart to you.”

‘I Opened My Heart’ Ceramic Plates are available here.

Daisy Shayler
Studio Assistant