Candy dish with flowers. A bouquet of flowers for your true love, hand painted ceramic tray. Hand made gifts with flowers decorative tray. for just $65.00 A majolica tray with three bright red blooms in the center of daisies for your Valentine. Hand painted and arranged as would a florist put together a bouquet. Beautiful gift for Moms, Nanas or aunties. Or even a gift for yourself. I spent many days as a child in my grandparents care and in their gardens around their home. It was their passion growing flowers for their big blooms and vegetables for true flavors. The gardens were planned well before the snow was out of sight. Seeds were planted in the hot house beds for early plantings of tomatoes, peppers and cucumbers. As soon as the ground was soft enough the compost was turned and ready to amend the garden where it was needed. So much work and love went into the gardens. So lucky I had them in my life. I am never far from those thoughts as I am making my pottery. It allows me to be warm hearted and pass that on to others, a gentle smile, something that connects us together. I believe that is what the arts do, whether it is music, visual, theater, writing and even the culinary arts. There, through the arts we find connection to each other. Rectangle in shape and measures 10" by 5" the edges stand about an inch high. Each piece of pottery is made in my front porch studio. Though small I make it work, but I make in stages. I fill a bisque kiln with green ware, raw dried clay. Once the greenware has gone through a bisque fire and removed from kiln the studio is cleaned up as I prepare to hand dip each piece. I can only dip as many as I have room for, so I may dip a part of the bisque ware at the time and as pieces are finished with painting and put in kiln in wait for the glaze fire, I will then glaze more. When the kiln is full I glaze fire this takes approximately 10 hours plus time to cool, because I like to warm up everything for about 6 hours before raising the temps. You may notice some pin holing , this is from where the glaze is thickened, this is a natural occurrence especially in sharp inward corners and on some textured parts of the work. It isn't a structural defect but is very hard to avoid their occurrence. I use materials that are food safe, you may want to hand wash as I cannot guarantee their outcome in a dish washer. You can visit my Facebook page to see my work in progress and more info about me, Karen Bakers' Front Porch Studio .
