If you've visited almost any retail store this past week, you may have noticed that they are already preparing for Christmas. Well, if they are, then so can we! This week, artists Lois and Kathy began creating Jean Elton Christmas ornaments. Here's a picture tour of the first part of the process.
First, the clay is rolled into large slabs.
Kathy and Lois have decided on a large variety of shapes!For that, they use cookie cutters.
The cookie cutters are placed on the slab of clay.They try to fit in as many as possible.
Here, Lois and Kathy are using straws to poke holes in each ornament.
Each ornament is then removed from the cookie cutter and placed on a tray.
Next, they are all stamped with the Jean Elton logo.
The ornaments need to remain flat until they are completely dry.Believe it or not, this is only a small fraction that have been made!
After the ornaments have been given a chance to dry, they will need to have the edges cleaned up. Then, they will be fired in the kiln, in what is called a bisque firing (or the first firing). After the bisque, each ornament will be hand-painted with various colored glazes by Lois, Kathy, and other Jean Elton artists. Then they will need to be fired again.
Check back in a few weeks for pictures of these next steps of the process!