A Few Decorating Techniques on Dinnerware

Dinnerware, be it for your own home or on restaurantware, often has a design on it. From a plain band to intricate designs, there are a few terms associated with the decorating process.

Hand Painted as implied, not as prevalent as in earlier years, often it takes years of training to make each piece almost identical. Brush stroke variations, color overlap and inconsistencies in line width and color depth are strong indicators that a piece is hand painted.

Lining and Banding can be done free hand but most often machine-applied now.

Airbrushing this technique became popularized in the 1940's, it is useful for band rims or accents. Stencil Airbrushing uses a stencil - also called "shadowtone".

Transfer Printing This is a neat pocess and common on older multi-colored pieces. Images are engraved onto a copper plate which a mixture of color and oil is then spread over the heated copper plate and this is worked into the engraving. Excess color is removed and then the designed is printed onto special paper which resembles a strong tissue-paper. Like a temporary tattoo, this piece of paper is placed on the piece and rubbed firmly. The paper is then soaked off and leaves behind the printed image. For multiple colors, it is basically layered on repeating the above for each color.

Direct Printing Like transfer printing, each layer of color must be applied separately in the following steps which are compared to an accurate form of rubber stamping. Soft silicone is used for the molded design and placed on a printing head. The head is then positioned on the piece, pressed down and leaves behind a single color design.

Decals applied by hand or machine, as the name implies, decals which are applied to the piece using various techniques.

For a more comprehensive in-depth definition with lots of great color photos, check out the Collector Books - Restaurant China Vol. I by Barbara J. Conroy.