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!)