Page "Mug" Paragraph 17

As a ubiquitous desktop item, the mug is often used as an object of art or advertisement ; some mugs are rather decorations than drinking vessels.

Carving had been traditionally applied to mugs in the ancient times.

Deforming a mug into an unusual shape is sometimes used.

However, the most popular decoration technique nowadays is printing on mugs, which is usually performed as follows: Ceramic powder is mixed with dyes of chosen color and a plasticizer.

Then it is printed on a gelatin-coated paper using a traditional screen-printing technique, which applies the mixture through a fine woven mesh, which is stretched on a frame and has a mask of desired shape.

This technique produces a thin homogeneous coating ; however, if smoothness is not required, the ceramic mixture is painted directly with a brush.

Another, more complex alternative is to coat the paper with a photographic emulsion, photoprint the image and then cure the emulsion with ultraviolet light.