Development of local ceramic materials as substitute base material for imported screen printing engobes for ceramic decoration
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Date
2001-12-14
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Abstract
The development of suitable screen-printing colours has been a difficult problem for many ceramicists in Ghana. Ceramicists in Ghana still face the problem of unavailability of ceramic printing colours. Where these are readily available, printing colours are expensive because they are imported. However, local ceramic materials needed for engobes for printing abound in Ghana. The production of engobes using local materials would be much help in the decoration of ceramic products in the Senior Secondary Schools and Colleges. This project seeks to identify and experiment with several local earth materials, which can be used as raw materials for the development of screen-printing engobes for teaching fundamental skills in ceramic in Ghanaian schools and colleges.
Eight local earth materials, Feldspar, Kaolin, Ball clay, Fomena clay, Afari clay, Sand (Flint or Silica), White micaceous clay and Manganese were selected for detailed study to ascertain their quality and usefulness. Mechanical methods of processing raw materials were used. This involves the crushing of raw materials in a metal mortar, pounding with a metal pestle and sieving through a 300 mesh. This method of procession can be adopted for use in our schools and colleges. Several experiments were conducted to test the use of local earth materials for engobes.
The study provides an instructional guide on the use of screen-printing engobes for ceramic decoration and makes some recommendations for the use of local materials for ceramic decoration.
Description
A Project report submitted to the School of Graduate Studies, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Kumasi in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the award of the Master Of Arts Degree in Art Education, 2001