The winter holidays are three months past, and after a season of almost constant snow here on the East Coast, everyone is waiting impatiently for spring. So, perhaps it is a bit late to be posting a project about snowflake ornaments (yes, I am once again behind in my posts). Ah well. Here goes anyway!
About a week and a half before Christmas 2013, I thought to myself: “Wouldn’t it be nice to make everyone in the family a personalized ornament for Christmas?”
Good idea, poor timing. With drying time of up to a few weeks and two rounds of firing spanning almost 2 days each (including kiln cooling time), 10 days is really not enough time to go from idea to finished product in the world of ceramics. But, as I tend to be overly optimistic about what I can accomplish in a limited amount of time, I decided to go for it!
About a week and a half before Christmas 2013, I thought to myself: “Wouldn’t it be nice to make everyone in the family a personalized ornament for Christmas?”
Good idea, poor timing. With drying time of up to a few weeks and two rounds of firing spanning almost 2 days each (including kiln cooling time), 10 days is really not enough time to go from idea to finished product in the world of ceramics. But, as I tend to be overly optimistic about what I can accomplish in a limited amount of time, I decided to go for it!
Personalized snowflake ornament.
Project:
Personalized Snowflake Ornaments
| Materials:
|  A few materials: clay slab, snowflake cookie cutter, sponge, coffee straw. |
Step 1: Rolling a Slab
♦ Roll out a slab of clay to the desired thickness using a slab roller or a rolling pin.
Any type of clay will work for the ornaments depending on the look desired for the finished product. I chose a white mid-fire (cone 6) porcelain clay for the ornaments because I wanted a certain amount of delicacy and strength combined with the simple beauty of a clean, white background.
I rolled my slab to a thickness of 1/4, which I find to be a good thickness for a small ornament. Using a rubber rib, I smoothed out the texture left on the surface of the clay the canvas of the slab roller.
 A cookie cutter in the shape of a snowflake is used to cut out ornaments from a slab of porcelain clay. |
Step 2: Cutting out the Ornament
♦ Cut out the basic shape of the ornament with a cookie cutter, or free hand with a clay knife.
Keeping with a winter theme, I cut out my ornaments using a small snowflake cookie cutter. Of course, any shape or size of cookie cutter can be used depending on the occasion. The snowflake cookie cutter I used is about 2.25 inches in diameter. The final ornaments are about 2 inches in diameter due to clay shrinkage during firing.
♦ Using a small sponge dampened in the water, smooth the edges and faces of the snowflakes. Then let the clay dry a bit so that the ornament can be touched without leaving finger prints.
 Lace stamp used to impress pattern on tips of snowflake. |  Various letter stamps: 1/8″ metal letter and number stamps stamps; small rubber letter stamps; large plastic letter and number stamps for concrete |
Step 3: The Design
Impressing the initial into the front of the ornament. ♦ Impress the designs into the ornaments using a variety of letter, number and texture stamps. Plastic, rubber and metal stamps will all work well as impressing tools, as will found objects.
In order to personalize the ornaments for each family member, I impressed the first initial of their names into the front of the ornaments. I recently discovered some large (about ½ inch high) plastic stamps used for concrete stepping stones in the back of the closet that I thought would be perfect!
To add a bit more texture to the ornament, I used a lace impression stamp on the tips of the snowflakes.
Flipping the ornaments over, I then impressed each family member’s first name into the back of the snowflake using small rubber alphabet stamps I had picked up at a craft store. I finish the back by impressing “2013” under each name with small (1/8 inch) metal stamps I had purchased from a discount tool store.
Impressing name and date into the back of the ornament using letter and number stamps.
Tip: Assuring that the impressions are deep will make things easier when it comes time to glaze the ornaments.
Step 4: Creating a Hanging Hole
♦ Finally, pierce a hole through the ornament so that the ornament can be hung.
I use a small diameter coffee straw to pierce a hole through the top tip of the snowflakes. Ceramic supply stores sell metal clay hole punches in various sizes, but using a drinking or coffee straw is a cheaper alternative. Using a solid boring implement to make a hole will distort the shape of the ornament a bit since it pushes the excess clay out to the side as it moves through the clay. However, a hollow implement like the straw does not distort the clay very much since the excess clay is basically cut from the ornament and is removed as the straw is pulled through.
Using a straw to create hanging holes in the ornament.
Step 5: Firing and Glazing
♦ Allow the ornaments to dry thoroughly.
I place mine between two sheets of drywall as they dry. This keeps the ornaments flat and allows them to dry evenly on both surfaces, decreasing the chance of warpage. Since the ornaments are fairly small, I can allow them to dry fairly quickly in the space of a few days. For large objects made of an ungrogged clay like porcelain, I make sure the drying time is much longer (perhaps a couple weeks) to avoid warping and cracking problems.
♦ Once the ornaments are bone dry (as much moisture has been evaporated from them as possible), bisque fire them to cone 05.
Bisqued ornaments. Oops! Forgot to add the impressions on the tips of these snowflakes!
Applying underglaze to the impressions using a syringe. ♦ After the ornaments are bisqued, they are glazed.
I wanted the majority of the ornament to be white, but I also wanted the letter and number impressions to stand out a bit. Therefore, I decided color the impressions using blue underglaze (a nice winter color), keeping the background of the snowflake white.
During my first attempts at decorating the ornaments, I thinned the underglaze with a few drops of water to make it a bit more flowable. Using a fine-tipped paintbrush, I applied a drop of underglaze to the impressions and let the capillary action move the color through the letters. Since most of my letters are quite small, some underglaze inevitably seeps onto the background of the snowflake. I wiped a damp sponge over the surface of the ornaments to clean up any excess underglaze, making sure the sponging was gentle enough not to remove any of the underglaze inside the lettering.
With later decorating attempts, I used a syringe with a blunted needle tip to apply the underglaze to the letters and numbers. This technique offered more control over the application of the underglaze. Less of the color spread to unintended sections of the ornament, and cleanup was easier.
Once all the letters and numbers were colored blue, I coated the front surface of the snowflake with clear glaze. I left the back of the snowflakes unglazed so that I can set them down on the kiln shelf during firing.
♦ The glazed ornaments are fired to cone 6.
 Underglazed ornament ready for a coat of clear glaze. Since I forgot to add the impressions to the tips of the snowflake, I used some underglaze dots for extra decoration. |
Step 6: Finishing
The ornaments require very little finishing: just a loop of ribbon through the hole and they are complete and ready to hang!
Finished personalized snowflake ornament (front and back).
