Mad About Texture

There is a trend right now of using commercial stamps on slabs of clay, adding some stain and clear glaze and VOILA! You have a cutesy little ceramic dish. These dishes are everywhere! And the makers are accusing each other of copying constantly. Not every cutesy dish maker uses commercial stamps, but a fair number do.

12 inch Platter

Well, the danger in not using your own artwork is that anyone can come along behind you, buy the exact same stamp, and suddenly you are not an original anymore. Of course, you have to consider that the artwork on the stamps actually belongs to someone else... often big companies like Stampin' Up. Many companies forbid using their stamps commercially and some, like Stampin' Up, have Angel policies in place that require acknowledgment within listings of the use of their stamps and the use of a special licensing stamp on each piece.

Side View of Feet

Although I've been a bit sidetracked, the purpose of this post is that sometimes the unexpected inspires you. Sometimes the muses will put something in front of me that makes me think, "Oh wow! That's great! Except I would....." Other times the muses put something in front of me that rather than pushing me in a parallel direction I am shoved perpendicularly.

12 inch Oval Platter with Wave Design

These stamped platters and dishes are my reaction to the overwhelming cuteness. They begin with slab of clay and a stamp or ten. (We have bins of stamps that we have carved. We carve stamps when there is nothing else to do. They fill the small spaces of our kiln and are used for years and years. ) We roll out our slabs and cut them to shape. Then we stamp them. Sometimes we stamp in an allover pattern. Some are stamped in quilt-like designs or stripes.

The Underside

After bisque firing, we prepare them for glazing. Because many of these dishes are not footed, we decided to fire them on wadding, so each dish is dotted with wax on the bottom. We dip or brush on the glazes - again we make our own glazes - and then clean them up and fire them. We don't have anything against commercial glazes... except for the price. There are a lot of great commercial glazes out there, but we would have to raise our prices if we relied on them!

Perhaps it is a Soap Dish

We are very happy with our new dishes. The glazes break beautifully over the texture and they are a joy to touch. We nearly sold out of them at last weekend's show! I think we brought home four - one round, one oval, and two square dishes. The ovals sold quickest and we have more in production already. Each is one of a kind!