Decoration Basics for Potters Making Decorative Plates

Saturday, March 20th 2021, 23:58 GMT+11:00
Australia

One of the most important attributes of an expert potter is learning about the decorative basics that can make their product excellent for decorative purposes. It is a natural tendency with the buyers and users of decorative pots to think about the pots that are covered with rich colors and shiny glazes. However, items like decorative plates and such other pottery items can be decorated in multiple ways even without rich colors and shiny glazes.

Glaze, Over Glaze and Under Glaze

Perhaps the most important task that the decorative potter has to accomplish is striking a fine balance between the aspects of glaze, over glaze, and under glaze. A huge variety of items are available including almost every color imaginable and many types of textures used for the purpose. Whether it is imported pottery, hand painted ones, or decorative plate stands, excess glaze or too little glaze would be defeating the very purpose of using the decorative products.

Proper Use of Glazes

Glaze can be used by layers on top of one another. This will certainly create more effects for the viewers and users. Simply using unfired glaze on top of each other and thereafter maturing them at the same temperature can have wonderful effect for the potteries. Sometimes using over glaze could be possible when the base glaze is already fixed up. However, the potter will require using a third firing in case of the over glazes and such firing should be made at a lower temperature. On the other hand under glazes are not glaze in the true sense. They are the colorants that are applied to the bisque ware even before the glaze is applied. When the glaze is fired the colors will show up through transparent glazes covering it.

Use of Liquid Slurry Clay

Both in Europe and North America, liquid slurry clay is used to create more glazes on the decorative plates and other such items used to decorate the home or some other places. Known as "slip" in Europe, they are also known as "engobe" in North America. When it comes to decorating wet green ware, they are the best bets for the potter as they can conveniently add color, texture as well as dimensional designs to the finished product.

Thus merely hand painted pottery is not the only decorative item that can be created by an expert potter but depth combination of colors, glaze, and texture.