Andrew Raftery, July: Fertilizing, 2009–16, engravings transfer printed on glazed white earthenware, diameter: 12 1/2 in. (31.8 cm). The Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens. Purchased with funds from Richard Benefield and John F. Kunowski. © Andrew Raftery.
Working with ceramics, however, was a new venture for Raftery, who brought his unique plate series to fruition through a lengthy, collaborative process. After determining the plates’ shapes by sculpting them in paper, he finalized the shapes in Sintra board, with the help of RISD students. His late colleague at RISD, ceramist Larry Bush, whom Raftery calls “the absolute technical director” for the project, experimented with more than 200 clay mixes and firings at different temperatures to come up with a custom clay that would resemble the Wedgwood creamware of the 18th century.
“I could have had Larry make the plates for me and design them,” Raftery says, “or I could have purchased plates to use. But in looking at my [antique] plates, I noticed how robust the shapes are. They have scalloping profiles, and there’s a kind of joyful quality to the shapes themselves. I think it’s because of those strong shapes they are able to hold so much decoration.”
Special molds had to be made for the hydraulic press; pressing out the plates alone (150 per shape) took two full summers. The plates were then trimmed, bisque-fired, and glazed; when the glaze persisted in "crazing" — or cracking — RISD graduate student Jack Yu found a solution.
Andrew Raftery, August: Deadheading, 2009–16, engravings transfer printed on glazed white earthenware, diameter: 12 1/2 in. (31.8 cm). The Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens. Purchased with funds from Richard Benefield and John F. Kunowski. © Andrew Raftery.
Learning how to transfer his prints onto the ceramic plates, too, was a difficult proposition because the industry in England, which produced "millions of pieces using tissue transfers" from the 19th century on, Raftery notes, "really has fallen apart. I had a hard time finding anybody who could tell me how to do it." With materials developed for that process in limited supply or no longer available, Bush suggested that in lieu of tissue transfer paper, a new material used for digitally printed decals might work. It did. “It’s actually a layer of acrylic that has glaze in it,” Raftery says. “It seems like the worst possible material to print on because it’s basically plastic, but it took an incredibly beautiful impression. It takes every molecule of the ink out of the copperplate. We then figured out how to do the application onto the ceramic with lamination and waterslide transfer, and it turned out great.”
(Larry Bush passed away in 2019, leaving his colleagues devastated, Raftery says. He is working to help bring attention to Bush’s own fine art sculptural ceramic works.)
Andrew Raftery, September: Mowing, 2009–16, engravings transfer printed on glazed white earthenware, diameter: 12 1/2 in. (31.8 cm). The Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens. Purchased with funds from Richard Benefield and John F. Kunowski. © Andrew Raftery.
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