Mothers Day is just around the corner…
April 2009: These tiles were made for Mother's Day gifts by my students. We rolled slabs of clay and using 6″ square chip board templates (I made these in advance of class), the students cut their tiles. Afterwards, the kids drew images and words on newsprint and cut out their shapes which were used as paper stencils. The placed their paper stencils on their tiles and painted underglaze over top. As soon as the underglaze was dry to the touch, we removed the paper stencils. The tiles are currently drying in my studio under sheet rock (to keep them flat) and will be glazed clear after being bisque fired. Made using low fire white earthenware.
8 Photos
Click on photo album to view the images.
Yes it’s true – Mother’s Day is only weeks away. With that in mind, I had my kids make a practical gift for their Moms. The kids weren’t super thrilled about tiles – but hey – what Mom can’t use a tile in the kitchen? I know I always need more and would rather use one my daughter made than some generic store bought one.
For these tiles, I had the kids roll a texture on the reverse side so that the tiles will be slightly raised in areas – I’m imagining that these could be used as a buffer for hot serving dishes to protect a table top. We used hand made paper stencils for the designs – I have to say that I really like the way they turned out and look forward to seeing them glazed which should bring out more intense colors than seen on my computer screen.
Meanwhile, I decided to grow up a little – I removed my nose ring yesterday and it’s already closing shut. I fear though that it’s going to leave a small scar where the hole once was [I'm not really afraid of the scar, it will be a good reminder that it was once there, a symbol if you will 
]. No one has noticed which is good – means I won’t miss it and must be the only person who can see the evidence. I think nose rings are attractive, but don’t want to be the woman trying to look younger than she is – tends to have an opposite effect imho.
With that, I close – perfect day to hit the studio – expecting temps in the 80′s today,
~Cynthia
tracey
April 23, 2009 at 11:27 am //
ahhh, great minds think alike! My class made Mother’s Day gifts yesterday too. I let them do whatever they wanted and some came up with tiles.Several traced their hand on the tile and wrote why they loved their mom in each of the fingers. There were some really sweet gifts. I am planning to have them all glazed in white and get some china paints for the kids to decorate with. We use white sculpture clay and fire to cone six. I have been trying to talk the studio where I work into doing low fire, but no one is going along with me right now…apparently it’s too complicated for a small community studio.
Cynthia
April 24, 2009 at 5:51 am //
The little hand tiles sounds awesome! I guess if you can fill the kiln with low fire it’s worth it – you might tell your community studio that it costs less to fire a low fire load than to go to cone 6.
Linda Starr
April 23, 2009 at 11:31 am //
Hi Cynthia, what a wonderful project and a perfect gift for mother’s day. Those tiles are beautiful, you have the greatest children’s projects, thanks so much for posting about them.
Cynthia
April 24, 2009 at 5:50 am //
Thanks Linda – I really hope that they turn out nicely! I’d be thrilled to receive one – wait – I am…my daughter proclaimed that it wasn’t fair that I got to see her mother’s day gift to me. I told her it was a surprise – just earlier than May 10th.
ang
April 23, 2009 at 5:51 pm //
ripper little slideshow of you…nose ring you say, you hippy you…
Cynthia
April 24, 2009 at 5:49 am //
Oh that’s me – lol, hippy mama…my hubby just realized it’s gone last night. I guess he was sitting close enough to me to notice.