Basket with weeping opal

This is the first time I have used weeping opal. I like the look on the finished piece!
The basket has had 2 coats of carmine lustre, fired in between of course. Then I covered the lustre with liquid bright gold and when it was "tacky" I brushed on the weeping opal and let it run how it wanted to. After it was fired at 800 degrees, the liquid bright gold was applied to the I-Relief and fired at 780. This makes a nice edge around the painted squares.

Bird with raised paste border

At last I have finished the plate I began at the Nerang, Australia school in class with Louise Hopping as tutor.

I needed a magnifying glass sitting on my chest to see clearly to cover the tiny dots with a fine line of burnishing gold. Before the gold work was dry I applied gold powder over it, which gave the paste a lovely rich gold look.

But remind me not to use such small dots in future!

Watch this space!

The last 4 or 5 weeks have gone by so very fast! I have just come back from Australia where I attended an exhibition of Australasian Porcelain Art Teachers' work. The work was stunning and I saw so many things that I want to paint adapting to my own style.

Following the exhibition I attended a school, and the class I took with Australian Louise Hopping was great. We painted a small fluffy bird in the middle of the plate and then surrounding it with raised paste (our own designs) and also many hundreds of dots around the edge of the plate.
I am no where near finished the plate; it needs at least another 2 fires. As soon as it is finished I will post it on my blog for you to see.

I am also working on a couple of smaller things, and will post those too.

So watch this space! And I am sorry for the length of time with no new postings.