Painting on the everyday...

I recently mentioned that I had Porcelain paints on my desk and several people commented that they were surprised. Surprised because they didn't know I did much else apart from cutting and sticking. And probably, because I've never talked about or indeed, shown any propensity for, painting. So true. 

The lure of the colours was enough really. That Katy at Baker Ross, who supplied these, was sensible enough not to send me anything too taxing.  Indeed, I used them and enjoyed using them on these fun teabag/spoon holders.  And I discovered something that if you decide to have a go, might help you.  

While wet, the paint is water soluble, so you just need a pot of water and a paintbrush. And an idea. Of course. These paints are for use on pre-glazed ceramic; they set by oven cooking at a low temperature for a short time.  So here are my results

These teapot shaped teabag holder/spoon rests come in a box of five

I do not know the collective noun for these.....

Ha!  Here's some things to say then. It's a nice opaque paint, but no thicker than oh, say....blood. If you want to something spotty and need control, actually you should paint the spots. I used the handle end of the paintbrush to dot paint onto the ceramic and as you can see, different sized dots occur. And when I wasn't looking, some of them spread and joined up. Harrumph. Cue lots of trying to wipe bits clean! The blue dots have remained in dimension.  Which made me move onto the starry styled pot. First I did a load of teeny dots in the pink. Left them to dry (did not cook them) and then did really teeny dots around each and pulled my pokey tool through each dot to get the starry effect. Again, until I let them run into one another, I was feeling quite pleased with this!

I did the pink flowers whilst all the paint was wet and very randomly...some of the 'flower' shapes didn't work out, but that's because I have absolutely no brush skill!

I sponged the lime green as a base and frame onto the other two. It worked well, the coverage is smooth and solid.  It changed the colour though..the lime green's true colour can be seen as the splash in the centre of the erm, splash designed pot.

That's worth knowing about. You can see on the splash design that I used more than a coating of paint..I tried a puddle of colour and then just dragged the brush through it to try to create the splash effect. It was too much and bubbled when cooking. It's perfectly hard and use-able, just doesn't look as I thought it would. As in, I think it was a mistake. 

As I was doing the supermarket grand prix the other day, I discovered that they sell individual teabag holders. In black. At the cost of three from Baker Ross, I might add. Anyway..I bought one and re-did the splash attempt.

Sure did the change the 'wow' factor of the colours - the orange and lime green are really quite dark, huh. Anyway..if you receive a small gift from me in the future, you may expect it to be some painted ceramic..I really enjoyed this sort of mass production. Imagine, if I could actually paint!