This is the way I make little votive dishes. There are probably better ways but I like the way these turn out still looking sort of rustic but symmetrical.
I use Seattle Pottery's CKK6 Cone 6 porcelain. You will need - some slippy water (starring here in one of Ceci Capen's lovely speckly yunomi), a set of biscuit cutters - the largest 4 inch size and the two next smaller sizes, a small sponge that will fit inside the biscuit cutters, stamps for making designs if you want them, tools for slipping, scoring and cleanup. I make my slabs for this 1/4 inch thick.
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| Stuff you need to do stuff that I do. |
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Cut out your 4 inch circles from your slab.
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| C is for cookie, that's good enough for me! | |
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Stamp your piece, clean up and compress the edges with your fingertip to stop any splitting in the clay.
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| This fishie is one of the first bisque stamps I ever made. |
Now decide if you want a shallow or a slightly deeper dish - for the shallow one, select the biscuit cutter that is one size smaller, for a deeper one, go 2 sizes down. Now align the flat piece over the cutter and use the slightly dampened sponge to push the clay evenly down into the cutter.
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| Okay, it looks a bit of a pig's ear but I got better after this! |
Push the dish out using the sponge. Make sure you push the bottom to a nonstick surface so it sits well as it dries. Wipe the biscuit cutter clean each time you make a new dish because it will become sticky!
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| Work that sponge! |
Let the clay set up for a while - in the case of my clay it was about 15 minutes, during which I made more dishes and lined them up. Once it is less floppy, clean it up and add any edge decoration.
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| fishie... |
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| ...meet hungry otter |
So I made more - you can see the difference between the horse dish on the left and the one on the right - the horse one used a cutter 2 sizes down.
and I fired them
and put votive candles in one
And here's the otter with his fishie -
The end results are about 3 inches in diameter and about a half inch deep. They fit votive candles perfectly, but of course they are perfect for all sorts of trinkets, tea bags etc!
