The Making of the Secret Surprise

Because the surprise was a secret surprise I did not share pictures of the work in progress. Now that the secret is revealed you can see what you missed in this wannabe tutorial.

Step one:
Getting inspired by the window hangings at the pottery, I admire so much.

There are more but stupid me didn't take pictures of all of them (or at least one good picture for that matter).

Step two:
Pondering many a week about the design of the teapot, making sketches and roaming the internet for pictures of English teapots. The pots I found at the English Tea Store have been my main source of inspiration.

Step three:
Turning the sketches into a paper stencil.

Step four:
Asking a nice person to roll a big lump of clay flat and having this done putting the stencil onto the clay and carefully cutting around it with a sharp blade.


Step five:
My favourite part: adding decoration. I don't have a picture of this part of the process because when I had finished my pattern a board was put on the teapot (on which it dried) and turned upside down to remove the cloth from the backside and I forgot to take a picture before.

Step six:
Bisque firing. This is what it looked like at this point.


A closer look on the decoration:


Step seven:
Smoothing sharp edges and then painting it with manganese dioxide.


Another close look:


Step eight:
Firing it in the kiln once more and admiring the result.