I have been a ceramic teacher and artist in Melbourne, Australia for over 35 years. I have a degree in printmaking and drawing but discovered later in life, a passion for clay. But as you can see, print still plays a big part in my own ceramic journey.

Several years ago I wanted to get my own clear drawings onto clay and I had a year's opportunity with the use of a kiln to experiment in a classroom setting.

I tried every known print transfer method at the time, but they all seemed reasonably complicated, not suitable for teaching, used difficult tools with the exception of lino cut or laser printer method, which only printed a sepia print.

Finally I decided to try the humble inkjet printer. In our school we had a cheap Canon Pixma, which turned out to be perfect. After much trialling and failed attempts, I was able to come up with an easy, foolproof method that could be taught to students of all ages and adults, which produced brilliantly clear prints - most excitedly; prints containing words. The beauty of the method was that the printer itself did not need to be altered.

I contacted all world renown print on clay artists at that time and to my surprise they assured me that this method was indeed a world first, hence my name was then able to be added to the method.

It was then featured in ceramic journals worldwide and several print on clay ceramic books, one by well known UK author and artist Paul Scott.

The method continues today to be the most reliable one to transfer words and print and is the only one currently in the world using an inkjet printer with clay.

This video is the result of all of the many hours printing with students, watching their delight as their artwork shows up on clay and is now available in convenient digital form, not just DVD, for artists everywhere.

I was lucky enough in those trialling days to get hold of Keraflex porcelain from USA, which is now hard to come by but I still love to roll porcelain and fine bodied clays very thin for prints.

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Year 11 students talking about their experience with Hodge Inkjet Print on Clay