I haven’t painted a Christmas plate for a couple of years, but I thought that having one or two squirrelled away might be useful “if” I have a craft stall later on in the year, and if not, I could always give them as presents.
I found the dinner sized plate in Poundland, I loved the ribbed edge, thinking that it would add an extra texture to the finished design. I used Sharpie pens to paint it, and was going to measure the stripes round the edge, but soon gave the idea up, if this was to be hand painted, a few wobbles and uneven spaces here and there wouldn’t do it any harm.
I drew the stripes in red as a rough guide and then gradually filled them in, colouring them in randomly round the plate so as not to smudge areas that might still be a bit wet.
With that done, I then added black spots round the edge of the plate in the areas that I had left blank.
I was nervous about doing the face, but I knew I had a short amount of time to rub out the pen if things didn’t look right, fortunately it only took three attempts to do the nose and two for the mouth before I was happy.
The final touch was, after some thought, to colour the white snow, pale blue.
After a little research on using Sharpie pens on plates etc. to help set/secure the ink, I baked it very slowly at 130c for two hours, keeping a careful eye on it. That being said I wouldn’t trust the plate in a dishwasher, but would wash it very gently by hand, but being a Christmas plate I wouldn’t anticipate it getting very heavily caked in food, I am thinking mainly biscuits or mince pies?
Post Note; I made several plates at the same time - one plate I was planning to use on a regular basis but on the very first wash the pen came off without too much effort - I thought 130o didn't sound very hot. I am now going to use this plate to experiment with at various increasing temperatures until the pattern "hopefully" stay puts, and then I will revise any future posts.
Post Note; I made several plates at the same time - one plate I was planning to use on a regular basis but on the very first wash the pen came off without too much effort - I thought 130o didn't sound very hot. I am now going to use this plate to experiment with at various increasing temperatures until the pattern "hopefully" stay puts, and then I will revise any future posts.
I think that Bertie and Iris might each like to have a special Christmas plate of their own to eat off of at Nana's place. This one is so cute and festive!
ReplyDeleteThat is GORGEOUS! I don't know if this will help, I've tried using Sharpie markers before and found they didn't "bond" to the ceramic, when I looked into it I found that most of the tutorials I'd read were American and their "standard" Sharpies seem to be different to ours (from memory I think it was something to do with alcohol content) I found some UK bloggers had had success by giving the ceramic a light sand before colouring in but even then they'd had issues. Hope your experiments go well and you find a technique that works, the plate is lovely & I'd love to have a go again. Maybe any overseas readers can help as they don't seem to have the problems we do in the UK. If all else fails you used to be able to buy a clear glass paint that you baked in the oven (it was designed to be used to tint and lighten coloured glass paints) - a layer of this would seal the design but can't remember if it was food safe or not? Good luck with your experiments.
ReplyDeleteBrilliant!!
ReplyDeleteHugs
Di xx