how to: sarah's platter

For anyone aspiring (haha- what a grand word!) to make work that looks similar to this- here's how I did it. I pressed the fern into the slab after I cut the shape. Let it dry, pulled out the fern (I always try to get more than one use out of each fern or leaf!), bisque. I glaze the fern portion only (leaf and stem) with a deep, bronzy green, using a small paintbrush. Some areas have darker coats, some lighter. The lighter coats look more tan than green. I waxed over the green glaze (using the same tiny paintbrush), let it dry, then poured white glossy glaze over the entire piece. Sometimes beads of white glaze stay over the wax- sometimes I leave them, sometimes I brush them off. I love how the turquoise glow that happens where the white and the green meet. This is one of my favorite glaze combinations, but doing the ferns is pretty tedious, especially when you do what I do and wait to do 20 of these pieces in a single day. Makes sense in a glazing-materials and preparation way, but not in a keeping-the-potter interested way. Podcasts help me to break up the tedium.