Christmas in July

Now that the 4th is gone it's OK to think about Christmas isn't it? Well, I have found that the ceramic process takes so long that I have to start this early. I have a new toy, the silhouette SD digital cutting machine and it has enabled me to produce some wonderful designs in cardstock which can then be made into a silkscreen and used on my pottery. I was looking for some new ideas for Christmas ornaments and here are a few I am playing with.

Also experimenting with low fire white clay "And" single firing after the designs are silkscreened on with underglaze and the pieces are bone dry, I have glazed them and fired them. These are my first batch and I am pretty encouraged. Wanting to find a nice package for them I found an excellent little box that cuts on the cutting machine.

Unfortunately I only had brown cardstock so you can't see the Christmas"y" effect, but having tried them, I have ordered lots of red cardstock. They will make a nice presentation for the ornaments and I can resize them to fit. I am in awe of the capabilities of that little machine and plan to give it a workout. The software that is "free" with it enables one to come up with own designs, text, etc. Lots of possibilities here.