One thing I learned being on Instagram, at Christmas time, artists sell ornaments. Ok- I’ll give it a go!
I wanted something that spoke of the times and reminded me of 2020. I thought doing a smaller ceramic version of my quarantine self portrait could be fun. I really like buying weird and cool things from artists that remind me of them and what they are trying to say, hopefully others do too.... or else my mom is going to have a lot of these on her tree 🤣
Quarantine Self Portrait- Acrylic on aluminum. 11”x14”
Here is the step by step on how I turned my portrait painting (above) into a ceramic ornament.
First I printed out a small black and white picture of my painting. I taped it on to clear linoleum and turned it into a line drawing by tracing certain parts with a superfine sharpie on the other side of the clear plastic.
I then removed the taped on drawing and carved, using my lino cut tools, on the opposite side I drew (since with a stamp you are going to want a reversed image).
I rolled out an even slab of clay and covered my stamp in coconut oil (or olive oil) and stamped it on my clay. I cut out the clay with an oiled circle biscuit cutter, compressed the edges, and used a drill bit to make the hole.
I let them dry super-slow under plastic to avoid warping. Then I bisque fired, spray glazed and glaze fired, and thread on my leather cord! Front:
Back:
**** Note: the clay part is quite a bit fussier than this to get good results and minimal warping. I did not want to bore y’all- but if someone is attempting this and wants my tips and tricks dm my insta 👌
making sure to evenly press down
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