Experimentation: Plate with White and Clear Primer
Because the UV pen doesn't stick to the plate I tried both the clear and white Gesso to see if the ink would stick. Though it does show up on the white primer, I actually think the clear is better as it appears brighter and is easier to read. I'm going to try a whole plate with the clear primer whilst using a better, wider brush to minimize the brush strokes left behind because initially I used whatever paintbrush I found laying around. Though under the ultraviolet light they aren't that visible, under more natural lighting, they stick out like a sore thumb - I want to use both kinds of light in the outcome to as like a working metaphor for family life.
I'm not completely stuck on this process of priming the plate first and I'd rather had a more effective, quicker and cheaper way if possible. To research for this I emailed a studio that runs pottery painting workshops called 'Saramique', initially I explained my project in brief and asked if they had any ideas of how to get the UV pen onto a plate. The feedback I got was very valuable and I'm very grateful for their help. They artists working there have tried putting marker pen onto plates but once in the kiln it disappeared, this is because the paints they use react with the glazed to bond it to the plate, but pen doesn't have that reaction and so doesn't stick. The lady who owns the place suggested not glazing the plate as that may work, but there isn't any guarantee. I kind of wanted the plate glazed if I could so I'm going to discuss with my tutor and experiment with different ways of getting the writing onto the plate first.
I had suggestions of using fixative (or hairspray) to set the pen, but I think it would just react similarly to the glass which didn't work that well. I may see if I can find any plates without glaze myself to try that, though my tutors have suggested baking the plate with the glaze or even spray painting it first. I'm going to try as many of these as I can and see which produces the best outcome.
