Thursday, February 3, 2011

Ceramic House Numbers

These house numbers are easy to make and are a great house warming gift!  Start by printing out your desired numbers in the font and size of your choice.  Make sure that you haven't chosen a font that is to thin in any area as it will be fragile when you make it in clay.  Roll out a slab of clay that is about 3/8 of an inch thick and smooth the surface of it.  Then lay the paper with your printed out numbers on top of your clay, make sure that they fit easily onto the clay slab.  Use a pointy tool start to trace the outside lines of your numbers gently pressing without cutting into the paper.  Once you have traced all the lines, lift up your paper and you should see an indent in the clay outlining your numbers.  I like to use an x-acto knife to cut the clay but if students are cutting these out you may want to stick to a pointy tool or a clay fettling knife.  Carefully cut out each of your numbers and remove the excess clay.  Use a hole cutter to punch out holes so that you can hang your numbers with screws later, smooth out the edges and you're done!  You could of course add texture to these pieces too using rubber stamps or texture plates.  HINT:  Flat pieces of clay tend to warp when the dry, try putting a heavy board on top of your house numbers as they dry, it will take longer for them to dry but they will stay flat and will be easy to hang up.  HINT:  Once they have been bisque fired, and you are ready to glaze them, it is a good idea to glaze all surfaces and seal the clay completely if they are going to be used outside, they will be less likely to absorb water and hence less likely to break if the temperature drops below freezing.  OPTION:  You can follow this exact process to create letters, like a child's name for their wall or a teacher's name for a classroom.

!!!B CR8IV!!!

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