Ceramic-Pictures-History-Of

HISTORY OF CERAMIC IMAGING

The art and science of ceramics dates back many millennium with clay and
ceramic pots unearthed in the earliest civilizations. Beautiful mosaic and hand-
painted ceramic decorations from ancient Middle Eastern and Asian cultures
survive today retaining their color even after centuries of exposure to intense
sunlight and wear. For thousands of years, hand painting with inorganic
pigments and subsequent firing at very high temperature has been the only
method for creating durable images on ceramic.

At the turn of the 20 th century the process of “silk” screening was developed
bringing a new technique for imaging ceramics and making it possible, for the
first time, to “mass produce” ceramics with a desired image. The advent of
photo-sensitive screens has replaced silk, and screen printing remains the
dominant long run production technique. Screen printing is economical if the
number of “prints” is high enough, typically 500+ for a four color image. The high
cost of screen printing is a result of expensive equipment and numerous steps
required in the process.

In the 1990’s Cromalin® Art, a photopolymer film carrying ceramic toners, made
one of a kind photo-imaging of ceramics possible for the first time. Cromalin
Art® has been widely adopted throughout Europe for creating permanent
duplicates of photographs on ceramic. Because it requires many process steps,
including color separations and hand registration of the color films, it is also an
expensive process although far less expensive than screen printing one image.
Thermal transfer and sublimation techniques were also introduced and can
reproduce photographs on ceramic but are not as durable. These techniques
use much lower temperatures and plastic surface treatments to image the
surface of the ceramic.
*footnotes www.enduring-images/radius3.com/index.php?
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