Palm Pattern Perfect Platter 'A 3GK Tribute to the letter P'

Claire here posting to you live from - you got it, quarantine! Oh yes. But hey! Today - is Palm Sunday, so I say… let’s stick with the ‘Palm’ theme. I could say ‘let’s go Sesame Street style’ and today is ‘Brought to you by the letter P!’ Because as currently sit next to my cat ‘Puck’ attempting to painstakingly produce a persnickety piece about the particularly petulant pattern ‘Palm’ I can’t help but realize… it’s not actually a palm leaf… so where did it come from?
If this was an Oscar speech - I’d thank the little people in my life (Jonathan) for his patience and persevering platitudes of understanding…. for the sheer amount of space and mess this pattern takes up. It’s not just one table. It’s all of them. Usually with me handing him a bottle of glaze, a plate, a large brush and politely prodding… ‘please sir… solid color paint my bowl?’

I jest. It came from the Kimpton Seafire.

So if this were the Oscars of ceramics, of course, I’d glance in the Kimpton direction and, rightfully so, give them a polite nod. You see, 3 Girls and a Kiln were contacted by Seafire many moons ago about creating patterns that worked within their spa space as featured products and gifts. So yes! Ladies and gents, it was originally designed for the Kimpton (Thank you Kimpton! Note: I feel like Tim Gunn thanking ‘Mood fabrics’ when I said that) - and the green version of this palm/banana leaf hybrid pattern can still be found there for purchase along with 3 other patterns exclusively designed for the spa.

However - As us 3GK ladies have learned, and as the fabulous businesswomen we are, that there are certain key elements that make a project profitable and yet pleasureable: Speed. Please note - this pattern is not fast. It’s not even remotely quick. In fact - the process could be compared to a particularly slow peacock attempting to pass a preoccupied pedestrian.
In an effort to prove this point - I’m going to actually time myself while doing each step. Please pause and ponder that after this persevering process, I may very well never do it again.😀

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How to Palm Leaf Pattern a Perfect Platter

Materials

    •    Clay Bowl (in this example - Perfect Platter from Bisque Imports)
    •    Masking Tape
    •    wide paint brush
    •    Bottle of Duncan Matte Glaze in Leather Jacket
    •    Mechanical Pencil
    •    2 squeezy Bottles (yes. that is their technical name)
    •    - one bottle in ‘mermaid song’ with 15 gauge tip | Bellissimo ceramic Glaze
    •    - one bottle in ‘dark’ blue with 18 gauge tip | Claires special recipe (explained below)
    •    Sanding Block
    •    Mayco Clear One Brushing Clear Glaze

Claire’s special recipe - this is where we could get into a deep dark conversation about glaze vs underglaze and the inevitable evil underbelly of the ceramic world. But, I digress. The basics, as I see it, are this: Glaze is a glass/silica based recipe whereas underglaze is a clay based recipe. So with underglaze you get less movement, less melt and a more concrete fit to clay surface. In my mind - I want straight lines, not drippy lines, so I do a mix of blue underglaze and overglaze to get the perfect consistency. Is it different everytime? Yes. Is it a little bit ‘pour a bit of this and a little bit of that’ while watching Ozark? Yes. that’s exactly what it is.

Step 1 | Tape off your bowl | 12seconds
This is pretty straight forward. You have a bowl and you put tape in it. The tape is going to creative a glorious straight line that you, amazingly, don’t have to freehand. So… kinda measure halfway down your bowl.. and then a little bit more. Why? Because if you go halfway then you have to be exact. Me? I’d much rather not find my ruler. So ‘halfway and a bit more’ it is.  When you put your tape in the bowl, push it down with your finger so no sneaky glaze can get underneath.


Step 2 | Paint Solid Color | 5mins 28seconds
Take your paintbrush. Pop it in the glaze and boom - back and forth, back and forth painting with the glaze until you’ve got the smaller taped off section covered. Now! If you are like me, and very much like the pure sexiness of the Duncan Matte’s leather jacket glaze (puuurrrrr), you’ll want about 3-4 coats to be on the safe side. You could just pour in a dollop and swish it around, but then you lose track of the coats. SO! Designers choice - pour in a dollop and swish swish or, put your brush in the pot and back and forth paint until you get to 3-4 coats (4 coats to be safe). Before the glaze is bone dry, take off the tape. That way the glaze doesn’t flake off those precious coats that you just put on. Don’t worry about the edges of the bowl and that can be sanded off with a sanding block at the end. Set aside to dry about 20-30 minutes


Step 3 | Draw Palm Leaves with a mechanical pencil  | 9mins 23secs
This is where you want to harness your inner sketch artist - keep that pencil light! Basically you are just drawing out leaf shapes to fill in (oh yes… all you adult coloring book fanatics out there). How I start - do one main leaf and then drawing in the other large leaves around that guy. In this example, I’ve put numbers so you can see I drew 5 main leaves and filled in space with the background leaves. Sidnote - You can use any kind of pencil so long as you keep it light… I just prefer mechanical ones and usually have about 8 in my purse at any given time. Great for ceramics. Not great for legal documents and/or travel. I have found that out the hard way.

Step 4 | Fill in Mermaid song leaves with background color | 14mins 10secs
If you’ve ever come to a 3GK class before (shameless plug) then you have also mastered the art of the squeezy! If not.. then basically you a) hold the squeeze bottle nozzle down and give it one good shake to get the color to the tip b) give a light squeeze to the bottle positioned in the middle of the leaf you’d like turquoise background c) Make a small puddle of glaze and continue squeezing lightly as you move the glaze around into the corners of your palm leaf. Another reason pencils are pretty perfect? The light amount of wax in graphite will act as a barrier, so your glaze won’t hop over your precise line. Once your leaves are filled, set aside to dry (about 20-30mins)

Step 5 | Palm leaf lines | 42mins 40 secs
This is basically your final step… and if you ask me, the BEST step. I could do this all day. Drawing little tiny lines over and over and over again? Yup. You got it.
The trick here is to go one leaf at a time and outline the inner vein first. From that vein, you’ll want to radiate your lines out from there starting at the vein and going to the outside of the leaf… and then just keep going. Bear in mind here you want to make the bowl work for you! Move it to work with your wrist… turn it upsidedown, pop it on a pillow on your lap, cross your legs, and make that bowl work! and just keep going for all…..42 minutes and 40 seconds until you hand hurts and it’s time for wine. Which is right… about…. NOW

Step Six | Sand the outside edges and clear glaze | 10mins 3secs

With your wine in one hand, use the other hand to sand the edges of your bowl and then with a clean brush, carefully brush a straight line (we don’t have tape to help us this time round.. but we have wine for added fun!) about a 1/4 inch over the black matte and all over the palm leaf pattern. 2 coats of clear will make the bits that are supposed to be shiny nice and shiny! You want to keep the matte uncleared so it stays…. you got it… matte. Once the front side is dry flip it around and do the back. At this point, you’re probably a couple wines which is great! When it’s dry - pop it in the kiln at 1850 - and boom! That's how you platter.

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Hopefully you’ve enjoyed your glazing session today and your lil ‘How to’ from 3GK! Maybe you’ve also counted the amount of ‘P’ words in this post.. because I’m tempted to award a precious prize for the person who guesses that number perfectly and precisely on point. Also - any clue on how long this entire process, from start to finish actually took? Because personally, I'm slightly too petrified to find out. :)

Peace!
-Claire

Ps - The Perfect Platter Bowl (and many others) are currently listed on our etsy site for purchase! While we can't mail out and/or deliver until the post office re-opens and business is back to normal - all purchases will be delivered and mailed out as soon as we can!