Drawing on a blank

In my last post I gave you a sneak peak at my new porcelain blanks. These blanks allow for the use of mixed media while having the nice weightiness of porcelain. The idea came to me one day while perusing the endless rows of scrapbook paper at my local Michael's. Much like my love of fabric, my hoarding of scrapbook paper is verging on an illness. I love all the patterns and colors. The problem is that I don't do scrapbooking (is that the proper terminology?). I don't do anything with the paper other than look through it, organize it, admire it. So I thought to myself "wouldn't it be great if I could somehow use this paper in my jewelry?" The answer is YES, it would! And then I started to think of all the other things that would be great to add; like stamping, collage, painting, drawing, guilding... you get the point. So this is what I made - pure white, smooth, highfired porcelain blanks in a variety of shapes. They can be glued on, stamped on, painted on and because they are porcelain they can withstand heat so they could easily be soldered. Oh the possibilities!

Below are some examples of what can be done. I made all three of these pieces in about twenty minutes. They were so easy and fun - absolutely anyone can do it! :)

This first piece is the simplest. I simply cut out this fancy shmancy lady from an antique magazine that was in terrible shape (I don't condone chopping up perfectly good vintage papers - it breaks my heart! If you find an image that you must MUST have then make a copy and use that) and glued her down with some Mod Podge (one of my all time favorite products!). She was then sealed with three coats of matte spray sealer. Done!

This piece makes use of some of my beloved scrapbook paper. After gluing the piece down I then used pastel pencils to give the paper a little more depth and interest. What was a flat, monochromatic paper took on a more painterly look with the added shading. Three coats of sealer and this piece is smudge proof and super durable.

This last piece was little more involved but still very easy and quick to make. I started with some script from my antique magazine, stamped a faded looking design over it and then glued the piece down. I carefully cut out a floral design and laid it on top of the script. It looked a little lost so I added a little green pastel to the background to make the the branch stand out. Sprayed with sealer and called it a day!
I will add some glueable bails, hang on a chain and voila! I've just added a fun new look to my jewelry line! (I'm sounding extra cheesy today. I don't know what is going on with me.)

I will be adding the blanks to my Extra shop just as soon as I am done writing this post. You will notice that some have holes in them and some don't. I prefer no holes but that might just be me. I would really appreciate some feedback as to whether or not you guys would like more holes, less holes, no holes or just a nice, big variety. Let me know what kind of shapes you would like as well. I am open for suggestions! :)