Transfer Printing Demonstration at Spode - Blue & White Transferware

Welcome to Spode I'm here today on the former factory site with Paul Holdway who is going to give a demonstration on transfer printing techniques Here Paul is applying the colour Tap the copper plate with a tool called a spud That color looks quite good now Paul And this is being done on a hot plate and you can see Paul has to use a piece of leather to hold the copper plate because it's extremely hot It's being applied using a scraper To ensure the color penetrates every part of the engraved surface Next Paul uses a tool called a dabber—a wooden implement that presses the pigment into the engraved surface to ensure every groove and crevice is completely filled The scraper tool now removes most of the excess color Now we move to the cold plate where the scrim material eliminates the last remnants of excess color Upon close inspection it appears nearly no color is present on the plate Now the thin tissue paper is first treated with a soap-sized wash before being applied to the copper plate And this seems like an extremely challenging process to make it fairly flat Now just run the press forward then back It is then returned to the hot plate which dries the paper and also softens the color Now Paul tries to lift the tissue from the copper plate to check whether the print was successful and as we can clearly see it has been What an amazing process—absolutely incredible Well done Paul—absolutely brilliant So the tissue port is now on a lazy Susan-style device where it can be trimmed in readiness for application to the blank biscuit ware It would have been done with scissors originally but this looks like a far neater tool for the job You'll need a steady hand for this judging by the look of it It isn't coming Remove the border from the center This is a cookie That seems quite hard to locate the center now Looks pretty good to me It sticks a bit due to the color The plate is porous and it draws it in What are you putting on there Paul This is a softer soap but in a thicker form You're pushing pretty hard That's the center now This certainly looks like a very tricky moment So you're just running it along the very outer edge because the radius might not be exactly the same So you bear away The outer edge has a larger radius than the inner one Extremely skilled I have to be left-handed If it appears a bit too long do you need to shorten it No You can double the print there Only the bottom part is sticking out What exactly are you rubbing on Soft soap again You're pressing down really hard there It would feel as if you were wearing it off almost instantly You'd be afraid of pressing too hard Experience clearly shows you're not Bristol brush Nylon This is nylon That looks quite aggressive It sounds quite aggressive It's securely fastened now Traditionally the paper would be soaked in the running stream of water but we don’t have any running water here We'll have to improvise and soak it up It will take a little longer Would they have had running water in 1820 during that time No Just in a bath and trough A sink Drawn from a well From a pump I assume the advantageous task would be drawing the water You can just see it peeling off there That layer is doubled at the moment Let's pull up a bit Just a trickle of water to loosen it It's incredible to think this is precisely the same method that’s been used on this site since 1784 Isn’t that right Paul That’s correct It's going to pass the final selection That looks pretty good to me That's incredible You've clearly done this before Once or twice I find the engraving easier than the transparent That's all Here are the three stages: the hand -engraved copper plate the tissue transfer and the final product applied to biscuit before firing Here we can see some of the exquisite pieces crafted at Spode using the technique you've just witnessed