These pretty ceramic hearts by Jude Allman make lovely keepsakes and gifts for people and can be used as hanging decorations, gift tags or incorporated into other craft projects as a special feature.
This tutorial illustrates the steps for making these ceramic hearts, which can be adapted to create your own designs. Unfortunately it’s not an afternoon make! It will require several stages of making and some days of waiting in-between!
For this project you will also need access to a kiln that fires ceramics to bisque temperature (1000 degrees C) and glaze temperatures (between 1200 – 1300 degrees C) depending on the type of clay and glazes you use. If you don’t have a kiln, try your local art centre, college or potter: they may offer space in theirs for a small fee. This tutorial is divided into two parts below: the first is making and the second is decorating/finishing.
For making you will need:
- Stoneware clay (200g will make about 25 small shapes)
- Pastry or cookie cutter shapes (I’m using two different heart sizes)
- Rolling pin
- Small sponge
- Newspaper
- Bowl of water
- Cardboard in two matching pieces (about A4 size and 3mm thick)
- Potter’s stamp
- Kebab or cocktail stick
- (Kiln firing to bisue temperature)
Flatten a ball of stoneware clay into a patty shape and place on some newspaper. Use two pieces of cardboard of the same thickness and place either side of your clay to act as a guide. Begin rolling the clay out flat with the rolling pin. Lift the clay and turn it over onto a dry piece of newspaper to avoid it sticking. Repeat until the clay is even and as flat as the thickness of your card.
Use the cookie/pastry cutters to cut out your heart shapes and place them flat onto another dry sheet of newspaper. Re-roll the spare clay and continue making more shapes. Make sure you remove any air bubbles in your new slabs by pricking them with a pin and smoothing them over.
Smooth any uneven edges of your heart shapes with a damp sponge: any snags or dents in the clay will remain visible after firing.
To make a hole for the ribbon, use a kebab stick or cocktail stick and impale your heart shape. Here I’m putting the hole on one side of the hearts: once threaded together they’ll all hang at the same angle. If you want your hearts to hang straight, put the hole in the middle top. I also use my own pottery seal to stamp the reverse of all my hearts with my initials to show who the maker was. If you don’t have a stamp use a pin to carve your potter’s mark onto the reverse side.
Place your hearts flat on some newspaper and leave them overnight to dry out fully. Then bisque fire them face-upwards flat on a kiln shelf. When they come out of the kiln they’re ready to decorate.
For decorating and finishing you will need:
- Glazes (I use white and pink glazes)
- Narrow round paintbrush
- Thick flat paintbrush
- Wax resist (or water-based craft glue)
- Potter’s pin
- (Kiln firing to glaze temperature)
- Narrow ribbon or cord
- Scissors
- Ruler
Use a narrow brush to apply wax resist to the inside of the holes on all of your hearts. This will ‘resist’ the glaze and make it easier to clean out the holes. Take a thick, flat brush and load it with glaze. Hold the heart flat on your palm face upwards and in one quick movement ‘swipe’ the brush over it making sure you cover the entire surface. The glaze should dry in a few seconds. Using a wet sponge, carefully wipe clean the reverse side of the heart removing all traces of the glaze: this side will sit flat on the kiln shelf and must be clean. Carefully wipe clean the edges of your heart without spoiling the glaze on the front. If the wax resist has worked there should be no glaze in the hole! (If it hasn’t worked then clean it by dipping a potter’s pin in water and gouging out the glaze.) Allow them to dry fully before firing in the kiln to glaze temperature.
To finish your ceramic decorations choose a ribbon to complement the colours of the glazes you’ve used. I’ve used a simple white ribbon to go with the pretty pink and white glazes on these hearts. Make sure your ribbon is narrow enough to fit the size holes you’ve made. Measure out a length of ribbon at least double the amount you’d like the drop to be: more if you want to finish with a bow. Thread the ribbon through your hearts and knot the ends together at the top. And there you have it! It takes some time and patience – but there’s lots of fun in trying out new shapes and designs. Enjoy!
Jude's ceramic heart decorations can be found in her
folksy shop.
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