Images from photocopies, laser printouts, colored pencils, and even inkjet printed t-shirt transfers can all be transferred onto clay or TLS. (TLS stands for Transparent Liquid Sculpey and is basically a thick liquid form of the clay.) Or instead of transferring the image off the paper, the paper can be covered with TLS and incorporated into the clay piece using the decoupage technique.

Click on images for a closer look.
See my How-to links for instructions on various techniques.

Transfers on Clay

The photocopy was placed face down onto ivory colored clay, smoothed, and let sit for a half hour or more. The paper was removed before baking in this case. I had tried coloring in the image with watercolor pencils but as you can see they didn't transfer. Once the transfer was baked, I put a frame around it and rebaked. I then glued a sheet magnet onto it and this now resides on my fridge.

This image was colored in with regular (Crayola, Col-erase etc) colored pencils and transferred onto white clay. The frame was added and the piece was baked again. If you can see little pink dots, those are probably from overbaking the white clay. This transfer is also now a magnet.

This is another colored in laser printout. I made a very thin sheet of translucent clay using the pasta machine, which I placed on a thicker piece of gold clay. This was then run thru the pasta machine again. The paper was baked face down on the clay and then removed and the transfer was sealed with Future.

TLS Transfers

This is a TLS transfer that was placed on what I hoped would be an approximation of ivory. I think I still have a little work to do to get it right.

These transfers started as black and white laser printouts. They were colored with pencils and then coated with a layer of TLS. After baking, the paper was peeled off and the transfer was placed onto a base - white clay for the left and clay with gold leaf for the right. They were then baked again.

This is a TLS transfer that was placed on silver crackle with another thin layer of TLS to make it adhere. A frame was created around it with more of the base clay. The silver crackle was made by putting silver leaf onto translucent (can be any color) clay and running it thru the pasta machine several times. The clay stretches but the leaf breaks into a crackle pattern.

Decoupage

The back of this catalog picture was coated with Sobo glue to adhere to the base clay. The top was painted with a layer of TLS, embellishment was added and the piece was baked. As with the transfers, it was given a coat of Future Floor Polish to protect it and highlight the colors of the picture.