Lessons learned. Plates done (finally).

12th - 28th September 2021

Crochet project....

Sorry for they delay in the final installment of the lemon plates (finally, right?). Are you sick of these yet? I was distracted by making a crochet pouch and a handbag. Learning new stitches is fun too.  Yes, I have too many hobbies

...had learned a new stitch.

I ended up buying the decal paper off Amazon after looking at more reviews of different kinds of decal paper for inkjet printers. Altho this one cost a bit more, the reviews were better.  

The tips were pretty simple and I’ve added my own here :

• Print the images to the size you need (look up how to size your images - I use Pages on my Mac which gives me the exact dimensions of an image when clicking on it and sizing) on optimum dpi (at least 300) and high quality paper setting (they even say use glossy setting if you have it). Remember that any part of the image that is white will remain clear on the decal. So if you are applying a decal on a white surface it will be white - if you are applying on a surface that is off white or a different color, it will be that color.
• Spray a finishing clear acrylic sealant on the image. Be sure to let each coat of sealant dry thoroughly. Make at least 3 coats and be sure to spray moving in opposite directions between each coat. Be sure to let it dry even for the day after to be sure the colors will not bleed out. Try not to have droplets form. I sprayed my sheet inside a box so as not to spray everywhere in my attic room. Make sure you have windows open as the spray is quite smelly and toxic.
• Cut the images as close to the edges as possible. I made my first test on the tiles and the edges were easily turned overlapping on the bottom edge (if you don’t let it dry a bit, the decal will rip so be careful).
• Drop the decal images in room temp water wrong side down (the paper I bought has the brand logo on the wrong side). The decal will curl while the underside paper absorbs the water.  I expected from feedback on the product that it would be very difficult to remove the decal but it wasn’t - just wait long enough for the paper to become softened and unattach from the decal side (I noticed the whole decal just starts to sink). I did notice a little bit of bleeding in the water but only when I had moved on to the next step.
• Cover the surface where the decal will be transferred with water. I used a brush and made sure there was enough water on the surface to be able to manipulate the decal into position. Course it matters how you position from the get go - do your best to get it right the first time so you don’t have to manipulate the position of the decal so much. It took me a few tries.
• Use your moistened fingers to delicately push down the image a bit to get it to confirm to the plate and remove any air or water bubbles that may have formed on the underside. If you put enough water on the top of the decal while doing this, there should be no bubbles eventually under the decal. Be careful no to push too hard on the surface as it will tear.
• Let the decals dry sufficiently before adding any kind of further sealant or gloss finish.
  

Printed page of plates on decal paper.

Spraying the page inside a box to minimize the mess.

 

Floating the decal

Decaling each tile.

Finished tiles. Will use them somewhere in the house.

Plates. Less successful ones on top.

First trial. You can see where the decal rips and folds in places.

I did my best on some of them trying to get them centered but not all went perfectly. I am using permanent colored markers and acrylic paint to finish the edges a bit and the backs where I want them to be colored. I brushed some a gloss varnish for shine front and back.

Painting the back of one. The plate was not smooth anyway.

I’m fairly pleased with the final result and now have a bunch of ideas of things I can do in the limonaia house with decals.  Perhaps on the windows or even sections of the walls? It was worth learning this. I had a lot of fun with it.  Next, back to the painting and construction of the limonaia.

Finished plates thus far.

Three that I like the final result.

More lessons - making my own inkjet water decals....

August 29th - 1st September 2021

Continuing with the plates.

Now trying to figure out a way to make water decals. Why you ask? Because I only need them for this project and spending up to €18 euros for a package of water decals seemed excessive.  So, attempting to  manufacture my own decals.

I found a tutorial eventually (forget the english language errors in this video) and basically the idea is to print out the design, seal it with nail polish (normal polish, not gel), let dry and then scrape the paper off the back. The nail polish hardens into a sort of film. The other option was using clear packing tape (which I did find but will have to try out - seems too thick for what I need) so I’m going with the nail polish test.

I had some clear nail polish already in my hobby stash so after a few others posters online giving me tips I started covering the plate designs with layers of polish. The Della Robbia plate (dark green) was probably going to be easier since there is no white in the plate but the other designs have white in them and when I get to the point of removing the paper backing - which is white - it may not look right.  So I was curious to see how much detail and color is left in the design. 

Applying clear nail polish on the printed designs (normal paper)

After covering the images with many layers of nail polish, I soaked them in warm water and tried to scrape off the paper from the back of the image with a tool. Didn’t work at all really. I scraped one of the della Robbia designs this way and most of the color came off with the paper, so I used just my fingers and rubbing worked better. The only problem there is that very little detail remains. So, I tried a design with lots of white in it.  

Soaking the designs, paper side down.

Crappy scraped result....

 

 

 

 

 

 

It had soaked up quite a bit of water and while “scraping” the back with my fingers, I realized that the image was getting very soft and malleable. 

You can see how thin the decal can get.

This means that I don't even have to clean all of the paper completely off the back - the “decal” is flexible enough to try and apply to a plate.  Basically, it softens up and dissolves out a bit of the paper backing so I can mold it into the plate.  I used varnish on the first plate test and applied the design - but it was so quick to dry I couldn't even adjust or center the decal the way I wanted to.  I let it dry a little, then tried a bit of clear nail polish to see if that would stiffen and make the plate solid enough to sand. But the reaction between the varnish and the polish wasn’t a good idea - I picked up the plate and a layer of the nail polish stuck to my finger… OK, will just let that plate sit untouched and harden as much a possible.  

The Della Robbia plate decal.

The della Robbia plate was working out much better till I tried to rub the decal into the plate’s indentations - I had used the nail polish to apply the plate here and it softened the first layers of the decal. So a little of the design scraped off a bit while trying to get it to conform to the plate.  Still, the nail polish is the best bet - I could center the design no problem before the decal started to dry in place. The designs are a little bigger than the plate (millimeters) and I thought I should trim them but turns out, it’s better to just fold them around the edge when they are still a little wet. 

You can see the messed up one and better version

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The finished Della Robbia plate

And so, here is my learning curve :

Left side yellow one is decoupage, middle is using varnish for glueing, and last one using nail polish.

Left image is before soaking. Middle is the decal.

And after all of that, I am still considering buying a sheet of decal paper.  The whole process washes out so much color (or maybe because I didn’t “seal” the inkjet paint before layering over the nail polish) that decals may be the only way to get the intense color I want. You can see how much color comes off the decal during scraping in the foto.

I did find someone who sells pages instead of packages - course, by the time I purchase it and pay for shipping it’ll cost just as much as a full package.  And the more I think about it, I realize I can probably use the decal paper to decorate some of the smaller tiles instead of decoupage. I just may end up being successful with these little limonaia objects (which will be so small that no one will realize all the testing I’ve gone through to make them ! Haha!)