A little bit about the process

It starts off simple enough throwing the form on the potters wheel.  Then things get complicated.   

The wildflowers, irises, dandelions and butterflies are all created using silk screens.  I design every aspect in Photoshop; the grass, leaves, each butterfly and every single flower, then I print them on a photo sensitive silk screen and cut them out individually.   When wet the silk screen is slightly gummy and will stick to the surface of the bisqued clay.  I lay the silk screen directly on the piece, smooth it out, and then push underglaze through, lift up the screen to reveal the design.  When there are multiple butterflies or flowers, I have placed them there intentionally.  Once the design is complete it’s set aside to dry and eventually glazed it in either clear, or green.  The blue is too dark to see the design easily.  

Once out of the glaze kiln I use a lighted magnifying glass to carefully paint the gold on.   The gold is real 22k gold, held in liquid suspension that I paint onto the surface.  The gold solution is a translucent light brown color that cannot be seen when applied to the glazed surface.  I can see the end of the paint brush and I can see the connection the paintbrush makes with the piece.  The surface gets a little bit shiny but that’s the only visible difference.  It’s a leap of faith every time I load the kiln.   

The spirals are also 22k real gold.  The gold is printed onto a transparent medium, that when soaked in water allows me to pick the gold up and place it on the glazed surface of my vase.  Because the vase is three dimensional this process is difficult to say the least. Small triangles work best to move around the shape and wrap over the rim.   It takes hours to wrap one  tiny vase.  

The opalescent pieces are the “easiest” to finish.  Once the piece is glazed, I paint the opalescence on, wait for it to dry and then paint the gold on the rim.   

Once finished with the gold I load them all into the kiln for a third firing.  This firing is called a luster firing and is just hot enough to flux out the glaze, the opalescent and gold begin to melt and fuse to the surface of the piece.  Once fired the opalescent and gold are permanent.  Each piece takes several hours to create.