Christmas is fast approaching. It will be here before we know it. For an artist, Christmas preparation starts much earlier in the year in order to have enough stock for people to purchase.
Last year was the first year I started making porcelain Christmas decorations. My decorations are fairly easy to make but can be time consuming. Firstly I roll out my porcelain until it is the desired thickness. The porcelain is then textured on one side only either with special, decorative rolling pins, use texture mats, pieces of lace or anything that I think will leave a nice pattern on the porcelain. Then I’ll use various different cookie cutters for the desired shape. A hole is pierced into the top of the piece so a ribbon can be threaded through on completion.
The decorations are then sandwiched between two boards, whilst still wet, so they dry flat and aren’t warped. Sometime during the drying, I’ll clean up the edges of each decoration as the cookie cutter doesn’t leave a really smooth edge. I also make sure that the hole is all the way through the decoration. You can see that some of the pieces above are drying slightly quicker than others. Once all the decorations are completely dry to the touch, they’re bisque fired in my kiln. After that, they’re all set to be glazed with a clear, gloss glaze which is brushed on by hand.
The decorations above that have a slight greenish tinge have been glazed. Once fired, the tinge disappears and you’re left with a nice white piece. The stack of stars in the centre of the photo are waiting to be glazed. After the glaze is completely dry, it’s back into the kiln for the glaze firing. The final touch is adding a white ribbon to allow decorations to be hung.
You can find a small selection of my Christmas decorations on my website – https://fieldsofclover.com/?s=christmas&post_type=product
