Tia Made

Then, it was allowed SLOWLY air dry so that it didn't have another chance to form cracks.

 Next came the designs to be carved and/or embossed.

The embossing process we used on this project was a first for me...

I filled the design that I wanted to be raised up from the surface of the egg with regular shellac with a fine brush as some of the design is rather intricate.

Then, when it was thoroughly dry, I took warm water and a sponge and began gently rubbing over the shellaced areas in a circular pattern.

After numerous hours of working in 5-10 min spurts, as the porcelain doesn't like getting too wet so you have to let it "dry" before working on another area and my neck causes my hands to go dead numb for hours on end...

TADA!!!! The "embossed" areas began to emerge : )

Now, it is time to paint : )

My teacher declares (regularly) that she believes this to be my favorite part : )

I'm toying with painting this in a reverse Wedgewood theme...

Making the embossed areas blue and the "base" would remain white...

SOOOOO, many people commented on HOW MUCH they loved it with the brown shellac coloring...

I was planning on this being a present for my Momma...she LOVES turquoise...

Well, we'll see what my 2 MOST IMPORTANT advisors have to say...Gregory and Jackson , believe it or not, have ENORMOUS influences on how my projects are completed : )

Thanks for looking!!!!

Please take care and God bless!!! tia : )



This dish took FOREVER to build!!!! It was WELL worth the effort!!!!

This is what it looked like after the Bisque Firing...I usually try to paint with underglazes while my clay projects are still  "green," so that the underglazes don't smeear while I'm trying to put the final clear glaze. The Bisque Fire "seals" the underglazes to the clay.  

This time I had to come up with a clever way to keep from ruining HOURS upon HOURS of work painting the colors on with toothpicks...

 The seasons in this picture are Winter with a snowman and Spring with a budding tree and flowers on the ground.

The bottom layer has sprigs tilted in two different directions to give it a less repetitious look : )

In order for the lid to fit it has to be fired simultaneously with the bottom part.  This means that there would be a gap between the blue glaze and the tan clay.  To overcome this, I painted the upperpart with the same color I painted around the trees but I made it a heavier coat and it remained unglazed. The top's handle is the trunk of the tree...It ties the seasonal trees together as well : )

Thanks 4 looking & God bless!!!  tia : )