Pretty little dish

I painted this 4" dish last week for fun!

I like to have a few little things on hand for "thank you's" ......

Ball rose vase

When I was shopping the other day I saw 2 little ball vases about 4 - 5" across, and (of course!) could picture roses on them!
They are not porcelain - the material seems to be a sort of stone ware, and was lovely to paint on.

I fired them only to 740 degrees, and took the heat up slowly in the kiln.

This vase has coloured roses on the top, and the bottom half of the vase is covered in irridescent blue lustre. Super!

Rose Vase

Here is the second stone ware ball vase, with torquoise metallic ground on the base.

Santa Bear

This is a cute little bisque (means without glaze) Santa Bear I painted for a Christmas ornament exchange with some internet friends from www.ppio

The exchange isn't until end of November, but I painted him early so I didn't have to rush.

He is just 3" high - the fur on his hat and coat are painted with silver metallic which gives the fur a nice sheen. This is in contrast with his nose area which is just plain white bisque.

Ellie's Tile

Ellie was conceived 31 weeks ago, and is due to be born end of November. This tile of the angel holding Ellie's heart is really for her sister Sarah-Jane who is just over two years old, as something tangible while she waits for her sister Ellie to arrive.

So cute!

Lustre box with squares

This was a fiddly (for me) box to paint, using different colour lustres plus gold. The 4 blocks of gold are visible if you look and in "real" life they stand out nicely. The bottom of the box has been painted the same as the lid and looks quite stunning on a low table in my lounge.
After the lustre had been applied, I outlined the lustre colours with black pen work and also with a fine brush to make a thicker line in places for variety. There is gold around the edge of the top of the box, and around the edge of the top of the bottom of the box.
Does that make sense?
I have a square sort of unpainted box that is about 4" by 4" which would look stunning using this method.

Grapes on a matte finished tile

I was just in the mood to paint grapes last week . . . . I have a project I want to do, but was in the mood to first paint at random on a tile. Murphy's Law came into operation - when you are painting for fun, the work turns out wonderful. When you are serious and want a great painting everything seems to go wrong. This tile was just a bit of fun and it turned out great!

There is pale blue lustre on the background, and I achieved the streaky casual look I wanted.
Unfortunately though, hair cracks in the glaze appeared on the bottom leaf at the last fire.
Urgh! I don't know why this happened - I find floor or wall tiles unreliable to fire. Sometimes they fire well, other times they crack. If you look closely (enlarge the pic first by clicking on it) you will see the tiny lines on the bottom leaf.