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Hand Building Project: Lace Imprint Casserole
One of the simplest and most rewarding clay pieces I make is a lace imprint casserole dish. This particular piece is eventually headed to my brother. Steps to creating a lace imprint casserole dish: I took a Pyrex style glass casserole dish and created a plaster mold from it. Be prepared that due to shrinking in the kiln, the piece you end up creating from a plaster mold will be smaller than the original piece it is cast from. I rolled out a slab of clay with a rolling pin, then draped the clay over the mold and used a combination of patting with my hand and stroking…
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How to Underglaze Imprinted Clay
This is a simple method to underglaze an imprint in your clay piece, which is a great method for decorating ornaments with vintage letterpress, lace or other one of a kind textures and making the patterns pop. You need an imprinted and bisque-fired piece of pottery, a paintbrush, underglaze, water, and a sponge or rag. While this does waste some underglaze, the underglaze is watered down, so it spreads well. Imprinted clay, bisque fired Watered down underglaze (this is Sea Blue by Speedball) Paint on the underglaze making sure it gets into the imprint. If you are underglazing the imprint in a large bowl, it will save…
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Making Ceramic Ornaments with Cookie Cutters
For several years now, we have made Christmas ornaments from clay. Last weekend I brought my supplies into the kitchen to finish up a couple requests from friends, and my kids descended on the makeshift workspace and demanded clay and all my tools. After a morning of wresting on the living room floor and failed attempts at controlling the noise level in the house, the silence that their focus on the clay brought was amusing, even if it took me five times longer than if should have to roll out a couple Texas ornaments. Basically anyone who has access to clay and a kiln could make charming ornaments with relatively little experience. Several things that…
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Making a Bead Tree for the Kiln
My newest ceramic project has been making pendants using lace imprints. While I only glaze one side of star ornaments, pendants, I felt should be glazed all the way around. After all, whenever I wear jewelry, it always manages to flop around to the wrong side. Therefore, I needed bead tree, but after spending hours trying to find the most affordable option that also made sense for pendants, I came up empty. Amazon has two available — Small Bead Rack w 4p 6″wire and 12 Piece Bead Tree Rack. Even the sturdy replacement wires for the commercial bead trees were costly to purchase. This is my original bead tree design. Please don’t reproduce…
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Hand Building Projects
After two cycles of predominantly wheel-thrown pieces, I’ve returned to hand building. Since I can do it at the kitchen table, it is perfect for these days when the garage is too cold. Later this month, I’m helping throw a birthday party for a friend, and we are making spoon rests. To prepare, I’ve been practicing and looking for good textures to use … and gluing the letters back on my rubber stamps. Yesterday, I went to the flea market in search of crocheted doilies and landed this lovely one. The thread is a stiff and not too absorbent, so it is working great with the clay. Dessert…
