Lexi Shockey, a senior art educa- tion major at Shippensburg Univer- sity, hosted her final “Slip Transfer” demonstration on Feb. 16. She host- ed the workshop for fellow ceramics students last year as well to share her technique with other students and to demonstrate the endless possibilities that clay has for an artist.

Slip is a thick, gooey substance that is formed by combining dried clay and water. In ceramics, it is used like glue to connect pieces of semi-hard clay to- gether. For Shockey, slip is the staple for her success as a ceramic artist as she specializes in a technique called slip transfer.

In 2016, Shockey began her work with clay at the Nicodemus Center for Ceramic Studios in Waynesboro, Pennsylvania. A year later, she started her business Blue Lemonade to sell the pieces she had made, and in 2018 she enrolled at Shippensburg University to major in art education.

In her freshman year, Shockey took advanced ceramics with her focus on finding ways to enhance the surface designs of her pieces. While research-ing techniques, she came across slip transfer designs, and became hooked.

The process of slip transfer is very similar to that of temporary tattoos. In her demonstration, Shockey explained that the types of slip she uses get their colors by adding various stains.

“I don’t use any recipes; I’m kind of untraditional in that way,” Shockey explained, telling her audience about the containers of slip in front of them. She has been using slip for this process for almost four years. Shockey has de- veloped that “artist’s sense” that tells her when she has the right amount of pigment added.

The process begins with a sheet of newsprint. “Everything you put on the paper has to be backwards from what you want it to look like,” Shockey said, explaining how designs are done from front-to-back. This is the inverse of how artists are normally taught to paint, meaning start with the details and highlights and end with the back- ground color.

When she began, Shockey would hand draw all her line work using a lightbox and a bottle of watered-down underglaze. As her production rate has increased, she now outsources her more time-consuming designs to a printing company. This saves her time and allows for her to focus on the numerous other tasks a small business owner needs to handle.

After the line work is done, she begins to fill in the colors using a combination of colored slips and wa- tered-down underglazes. She dries each layer using a heat gun before add- ing more on top.

“I normally have multiple [designs] going at one time which helps with the drying process,” Shockey said.

The final layer of slip that is applied to the design is the background color. For this layer, Shockey showed how she only dried the slip until it looked matte. Over-drying this layer prevents it from sticking to the mug, but if you accidentally form dry spots, you can fix it with a dab of water, Shockey ex- plained. Working quickly, she picked up the newsprint layered with slip and placed it onto the side of her mug, bur- nishing and smoothing out the creases as she rolled the flat paper onto the curves of the cup.

The next step is Shockey’s favorite part: pealing back the newsprint to reveal the design. Should the slip not stick well enough to the clay, Shockey showed how you can just flip the news- print back on and rub on some water to fix the gap in the design.

At the end of the demonstration, she passed around the piece so the students in attendance could real- ly see how the design worked. Then they were allowed to try the technique themselves on pieces they had created. One student made a more geometric design, and another adorned his cup with the simple word, “MOM.”

Shockey said her ultimate goal after graduation is to open her own studio to offer classes in ceramics and to have a store front to sell her work. She cur- rently has an online shop and sells her works in-person at the Waynesboro Farmer’s Market from May through August.

Shockey restocks and updates her shop roughly every six weeks at bluelemonadeceramics.com.

With the talent Shockey has, it will be unsurprising to see her headlining ceramic conferences and shows in the near future.

To see more of Shockey’s work, visit her Instagram page @bluelemonade- ceramics.

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