This year I wanted to make some ceramic Christmas decorations that were a very small batch and limited edition. I chose a few different designs that could be used all year and not just for Christmas if you wanted to. SO I made, pencils, mushrooms, pomegranates and one bauble shape!
I love the process of working with clay, it's so different to working digitally, messy and slow and such a great way to rest my brain. I tried to work smart this year and found a small business on Etsy that make custom cookie cutter designs by 3D printing them and it made it so much easier to make lots of the same design that were pretty much an identical shape (also sooooo much quicker!)
I also got a little stamp made so I could add my name onto the back of my ceramics, so once they had dried to leather hard, I pressed the stamp into the back of each one and it looked so cute!
Next was my favourite bit, the painting! I picked a few different designs for each apart from the pomegranate. I kept most of the designs pretty simple at this stage as I knew that I would be adding gold enamel paint once they had been glazed and fired.
How cute do these lil pomegranates look!
Here they all are before then went on their way to the kiln. I always find this the most daunting part because you never really know exactly how they'll turn out. Being a BIT of a perfectionist / control freak when it comes to my work I find this equally terrifying and exciting haha!
Also, I never reaallllyyy know how many ceramic pieces to make, because they're pretty labour intensive and if they don't sell it feels like a bit of a waste. BUT, I took them to my first pre-Christmas market this weekend and they sold like hot cakes! So I'm kind of thinking I might need to make some more!
I couldn't resist a little peek in the box when I picked them up and I was obsessed! The colours came out so so nicely!
The last thing to do was unpack them all, check over them for any defects and add the gold! There are two ways that you can add gold to your ceramic pieces. You can do a second firing with gold lustre, but this is quite expensive and only really necessary if you want your gold finished pieces to be food safe!
So I decided to buy some gold enamel paint and add it on that way (after they had been fired) saving the need for a second firing, which makes them much more eco-friendly and saves me having to pay for 2 firings!
I took them to my first Christmas market in Frome a few weekends ago and they were waaaaay more popular than I thought! So I'm actually in the process of making a whole second (bigger) batch for the markets I have left this year!
In this batch is also a food bowl for a very special little addition joining us in January!