Sharpie Pen - Snowman Christmas Plate

The original inspiration idea for this Christmas Plate came from Pinterest - https://uk.pinterest.com/pin/332984966186944740/

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.

I then added the snow border in the slope of the plate, this was fiddly, and if I am being critical, it may have looked better in a paler blue colour.

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.