My friends Rob and Nancy asked me to make them some tableware to supplement a dinner service that they had been given for a wedding present back in the last century. Over the years they have broken and chipped quite a few pieces and the potter who originally made the pots has since retired so I needed to do something that could sit sympathetically with the existing pieces.
Decorating the plates
I’ve had a lot of fun trying out different clay bodies that would toast up nicely in a reduction atmosphere before settling on Valentine’s HT Body. The glaze and colours took a little longer to get right because I wanted to get the right greyish white tinge with a speckle coming through from the body. The bonus is that it’s a very robust feldspar/zircon white that also works really well over the porcelain body that I use.
Plate detail
I was quite out of my comfort zone with the onglaze painting technique and have needed a bit of hand holding from my husband who’s a bit of a pencil squeezer kind of geezer!
Plates with orchid flower design
