Tips to Make Your Own Ceramic Wares

Need a new lamp in the living room? Instead of shopping around and hoping that you will find something which only resembles what you desire, make it yourself. It is not hard, really, once you have mastered the basic techniques of making ceramic wares. Once started, you will find no end of things of their children’s development. The kindergarten boy or girl brings home drawings made on cheap paper -which in a few years crumble into dust, much to the parent’s dismay. However, if these same drawings, so much treasured by parents, were done on tile, they would never fade; the colors would remain vivid and fresh as the day they were made.

Among the most popular do-it-yourself projects today is the tile-topped coffee table. In a fine furniture shop such a table would cost an absolute minimum of $100. Yet, the ceramics hobbyist in his spare time can produce just as fine a table quite simply and at one-fourth the price.

Similarly, when gift-giving time rolls around, you can present your family and friends with things no one else could possibly give them things you have created especially for each of them. Your gifts, though inexpensive to make, will bear the which can be made for the home and your own personal adornment. The most ordinary article can be given real, lasting beauty with a bit of imagination on the ceramist’s part.

Take, as an example, a commonplace kitchen knife. Let us say the handle is broken. The blade, however, is fine steel and it would be a shame to throw it away. For the ceramist, this is no problem. Rather, it is an opportunity. All that need be done is to make another handle out of clay, striving, of course, to make it handsomer than the original.

These are but a few of the things you can accomplish after gaining a little background knowledge and practical experience. Stop and think for a few minutes and you’ll be able to come up with many, many others. Just to run through the alphabet, there are: ash trays, bells, cigarette boxes, dresser sets, egg cups, figurines, gravy dishes, hat pins, inkwells, jam jars, lockets, mirror frames, napkin rings, ocarinas, pipe holders, quatrefoil wall plaques, razor holders, saltcellars, thimbles, umbrella handles, vases, window boxes, Yule cards, zipper tags for children which bear the wearer’s name and address.

You could probably compile a similar list in short order. Perhaps, you will even think of a ceramic something that begins with the letter X. Many ceramists have turned their hobby into profitable sidelines by conceiving of new ceramic forms.

The vast majority of professional clay workers today got their start as amateur hobbyists, just like you. After they advanced far enough, they found that people were willing to pay for the ceramic goods they produced.

Of course it is nice to be able to make your hobby pay for itself. And it’s even nicer if you can earn a living by doing something you enjoy.