This section is from the book "Porcelain Painting", by Elizabeth Lawrence Archer. Also available from Amazon: Porcelain Painting.
An agate or pebble burnisher, some white lead, a little vinegar, and a piece of sheep skin for wiping the ware, are necessary. Great cleanliness is indispensable, so much so, that the workman must neither touch the implements nor the ware with the naked hand. The burnisher is applied lightly, and is always rubbed in one direction; vinegar and white lead, are used, to cleanse the surface; the last touches of the burnisher are then applied.
This process belongs not to the Artist, but the Potter.
As oil is the medium in oil, and water in water-colour paintings, so in porcelain painting, the same necessity for a medium obviously exists. Amongst these are— Gum Water Oil of Lavender Oil or Spirits of Turpentine Fat Oil of Turpentine Other Volatile Oils. The liquid Medium, which is employed in laying on the colours, is rubbed with them, on a glass, or other hand palette until they intimately combine; the colour is then applied to the porcelain with a hair pencil in the ordinary manner.
The object in the choice of diluents, is to procure one which is sufficiently volatile, to be easily dissipated by heat.
When colours are applied directly on biscuit china, no oil is ever ground with them, but they are mixed with water only.
The process of "tram/erring" is a less expensive description of embellishment, and although it scarcely comes within the scope of these remarks, a brief notice of it may not be inappropriate, as the celebrated willow pattern and many others seen on a cheap description of ware, are thus produced.
The design (landscape or other) is first engraved upon copper, and the colour, which is mixed with boiled linseed oil, is laid on, in the manner of ordinary copperplate printing.
To increase the fluidity, the plate is placed in a stove, a sheet of damp tissue paper is laid on it, and both are passed in the usual way through a press.
The paper, wet with the colour, is clipped so that all the blank portion surrounding the colour is reduced. The impression is then lightly applied to the biscuit ware. A piece of woollen cloth, rolled tightly in the form of a cylinder, then presses (by rolling or rubbing) the coloured design into the substance of the porcelain. The paper is allowed to adhere to the vessel for an hour, when both are placed in a cistern of water, so that the moistened paper is readily peeled off, leaving the design attached to the china surface.
After the above process, that of firing commences, and finally prepares the ware for the market.
 
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