Here’s a little behind the scenes look at my latest custom order. I am honored to have been asked to make ornament keepsakes for The Ladies of Bonny Doon Club to celebrate the club’s 75th Anniversary! They were to be a surprise for the members, so I couldn’t post about this project until they’ve celebrated this milestone. Their luncheon was yesterday, so now, I can share this with you.
- Custom porcelain ornament celebrating the 75th Anniversary of The Ladies of Bonny Doon Club
It wasn’t always smooth sailing. As usual, I needed to make several stamps to get the graphics just right. My husband, Mike is a photographer and graphic designer and creates the images that I need to make the stamps. He is a very patient man! I think we must have made a half a dozen stamps before being satisfied with how the final try worked with the clay.
I was happy with a smaller stamp after a couple of tries, cut some samples and realized that the three inch shape was going to be too small. The ladies asked for a three inch round ornament, but with the approximate 12% shrinkage after firing, the pieces would be too small. Bummer!
Sooo, I decided to use a larger cutter and shaped about 70 pieces. (I always need to make more than needed in case of warping or cracking in the drying or firing processes) Then cleaned and bisque fired them. They would glaze fire to be 3 inches in diameter. Perfect!
Then….I wasn’t happy with the image size in the larger shape. I’m pretty sure I called, “Hey Sweetie…” and talked to Mike about my thoughts. He read my mind (as usual) and started on the new stamp graphics. Did I tell you what a lucky woman I am? The final stamp was a success and I proceeded to cut out another 70 pieces textured with the much improved stamp. Whew!!
Bisque firing was a success and on to glazing. I won’t show you the idea failures, but I’m happy with the result of quite a few trials and errors! Then on to glazing the rest of the batch.
I attached tiny Swarovski crystals to add a twinkle to the eye of each Quail. All that was left to do was hang on ribbons and place them with tissue in gift boxes, ready for the big day!
I hope the ladies had a lovely day, celebrating their milestone anniversary!
The Ladies of Bonny Doon Club is a social club that supports various organizations and charities in my neck of the woods of the Santa Cruz Mountains of California.
- Bonny Doon Fire Department with a Bake Sale at each Event
- Salvation Army with canned goods
- Hospice
- Camp Harmon
- Valley Churches (Layette Project)
- Bonny Doon School (Garden Tour Project)
- Community Projects
Please feel free to contact me if I can help you celebrate one of life’s special events, or milestones with a custom porcelain keepsake! ~Carol
carolmilich.com 