Dye Jobs

Last week's post about china markers and Pebeo markers and paints stayed on my mind this weekend. There are countless ways to alter the color of clay and I thought it would be interesting to share a few others.

The book, Clay Techniques to Dye For, which I worked on with Judy Belcher, Leslie Blackord, Donna Kato, and Debbie Tlach is full of projects using inks, paints, and powders from Ranger.

This bracelet project from the book is a fun example of how you can turn black and white canes into ones with an unlimited color palette. Judy applied Ranger's archival re-inkers onto one side of the unbaked clay discs and left the original black and white colors on the other side to make this great reversible bracelet. According to Judy, this technique works best using pure colors of black and white. The grey tones that result from a black and white Skinner blend tend to muddy the colors of the inks.

I recently had the opportunity to meet the immensely talented Jeanne Rhea who's been doing some amazing work with inks. I could write a whole blog on this incredible lady but since she already has one of her own, I guess I'll settle for an occasional post. She has tons of information about her process so be sure to check her archives.

And finally, Ponsawan Sila has been "painting on clay" recently and has made some lovely cabs. You can check out some other examples of new work on her site.