DIY Delftware

Yellow Owl's Make It Yours
Delftware is blue and white china made in the Netherlands that was popular in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. I love the restrained palette and how motifs from Japan and China mingle with European ones. The restricted palette, symmetry, and repetition of marks make for awesome compositions. These designs look complicated, and in a way they are, but the busy-ness of the composition and the mark of your hand (even the mistakes) will just add to the charm. I find it’s easiest to make this project using plates with a flat rim. I used an 11" (28cm) dinner plate with a 2" (5cm) rim. Use a scanner to scale motifs down or up as needed. You can start this project at home or, for an even easier time, head to your local paint-your-own pottery studio, where they will sell you the bisqueware, provide glazes, and fire your finished pieces in a kiln. After transferring the design you can paint it with underglazes, but I like the fine-line quality of underglaze pencils. It is essential to use red Saral transfer paper because the marks will disappear in the high heat of the kiln.
TIME: 1 hour
DIFFICULTY: • • • •
LEARN: How to transfer graphics to ceramics and glass
REMIX: Use this transfer technique on finished ceramics or terra-cotta pots, but use glass paint, which heat-sets in the oven (see Tres Bien Bathroom Set on page 83), for decorative use