Thursday, October 18, 2012

Holiday Tree Ornaments

I wanted to have ornaments to sell in my decal ware shop, but couldn't think of what to do.
I found these porcelain ornaments online, and ordered some a couple months ago:
First I tried firing decals on them. Because they were already glazed, I held them off the kiln shelves with wadding.  The wadding worked, but the decals didn't. They were absorbed by the glaze and became invisible.

I was bummed.

But last night I was cleaning my office and came across them.  I had some Diamond Glaze (water based craft shiny coating) left over from another project, so I printed some Christmasy images from the Graphics Fairy and copied some from my own stash. I printed them onto tissue paper, and cut them out and tried to decoupage them on the rounds.
I made a terrible mess and the Diamond glaze reacted with the ink and the colors ran like crazy.

I was bummed.

  Then I tried adding my decals to the ornaments. That worked better! Even though they are all just black and white it still looked pretty good.

At first I used more holiday themed images. They looked good, but with the black and white they weren't that interesting.

Next I tried decals that would maybe not seem Holidayish at first glance, like cephalopods and bats.

I was pretty pleased with the octopus wreath, but I was downright proud of the flying bat Christmas Tree!

I let the decals dry on the ornaments, and then covered them with the Diamond Glaze to protect the delicate waterslide paper.

I let them dry overnight, and this morning they look pretty good!

I did have trouble getting the Diamond Glaze to be smooth. There are tiny surface bubble marks, and on the Weeping Angel there is a texture from getting the glaze on too thick.

I will enjoy these being on my tree this year.
Especially the skeleton one!

As a matter of fact, I think I will give one away!
If you would like one, just comment the one you like best, and I will pick one comment at random and send them the ornament of their choice.
Be sure to leave a way for me to contact you if you win, and if you like more than one, leave a comment for each one that you like. I don't care how many times you comment.
Here are a couple of pictures of all the ones I have finished.  I will assign a number to each of the comments and use a random number generator to pick.  I will pick tomorrow evening (Friday night).
Each of the ornaments also has an image on the back too.
 Oh, and please check out my shop and my other one or this one if you have a minute!
Thanks!
And Thanks also to  the Graphics Fairy and Theerin for some of the images!

This contest is now closed!




25 comments:

Unknown said...

Oh Ant B, Oh Ant B, Oh how I love your pottery!

poops said...

You know I'm a huge fan! And I'm IN LOVE with the skeleton holding the snowflake. If I don't win, will there be one of these in your shop? Please say yes. I need it to be mine!

Aubrey Silver said...

I agree with Poops, the Skeleton Snowflake one is hauntingly beautiful!

Elizabeth Smith said...

I absolutely love these! I can't decide which one I love more, the Weeping Angel or the skeleton. Awesome idea! :)

Whisperia said...

These are fantastic! I hope you offer some of them up in your shop! I'm torn between the tree made up of birds and the skeleton one.

(I don't know why it's coming up as "Unknown," but I'm Whisperia!)

tuesdayj said...

Love the skeleton, very appropriate now that christmas is being sold in october!

HisOtherEar said...

Hi AuntyB! I would like to enter to win the bird Xmas tree!

Ally said...

Birdie tree, dodo, weeping angel, so many good choices. I'm almost glad (ALMOST) that the other methods failed because I love the look of these (:

Amy DeMaagd said...

I LOVE the bat christmas tree, or the skeleton with the snowflake. What are these going to cost? I am DE.

Andrea said...

AUNTY B!!

Love the skelton w/the snowflake!!!!

Love from AssCat

Penguinfly.Designs said...

WEEPING ANGEL!!! EEK! I love these so much! --Penguinfly

amiracle said...

Great ornaments. I can't wait to see more.

Flatlanders Soap said...

My favorite is the bird. Is it a dodo?

Do the Needful said...

I am ALSO in love with the skeleton holding the snowflake. The imagery is breathtaking. I would be honored to hang it on my tree.

Do the Needful said...

I am ALSO in love with the skeleton holding the snowflake. The imagery is breathtaking. I would be honored to hang it on my tree.

SnarkyTaco said...

Freaking adorable stuff there. I too love the Skeleton with the snowflake.

Unknown said...

I love the bat tree but I also am quite taken with the small tree and vintage holiday style tag.

(The Skeleton is gorgeous as well, don't get me wrong!)

Unknown said...

(Tygerlil, BTW!)

Unknown said...

I love these! Especially the skeleton one.
CLH

Ant said...

This is a comment for Snarktastic.

M Althauser said...

I really love the octopus in the top hat! Great giveaway. :)

ouroboros81 said...

The weeping angel, I adore it.

Unknown said...

Everything you make is stunning and i'm totally jelly of your skills!
I love the little birds nest with a sparrow(?) in the last pic..also I can't see what you mean about the colours running in the second pic, am I blind or are you being overly critical?

13moons said...

These are all so cute and quirky. I think I like the skeleton and snowflakes best, but I would have to choose the weeping angel for my daughter.

13moons said...

These are all so cute and quirky. I think I like the skeleton and snowflakes best, but I would have to choose the weeping angel for my daughter.