Last Minute Gifts for the Holidays

O' Marabu! O' Marabu! Your colors are so shiny! (Yes, we are already listening to holiday music here at Bisque Imports and you can't help but get it stuck in your head!)

With just a few weeks left before the holidays, encourage your last minute customers to create personalized pottery projects with Marabu Pens.  Marabu Ceramic Painter Pens are an ideal "make-it-take-it" project! 

By providing pre-glazed and fired pottery shapes to your customer and a selection of Marabu pens in regular and metallic colors, your customers will be able to create a masterpiece they can take home with them that day. At home, the customer will bake the plate in the oven at 340 degrees Fahrenheit for 30 minutes.

Be sure to give your customer baking instructions to make their artwork permanent and include helpful tips such as being sure to put your artwork in a cold oven to bake it and removing it only once the oven has cooled to avoid thermal shock.

Get the word out!  One of the best ways to get the word out about last minute gift options for your customers is to create exciting samples that are easy to recreate.  In the Hanukkah display we used a coordinating Martini Glass to hold the Marabu Pens.

You can even sell the Marabu Ceramic Painter Pens to your customers so they can take their projects home to work on.  Keep a stash of all the most popular colors for customers to select from!

Merry Marabu-ing!

Clay Puzzling: Playing in the Mud

Everyone knows that being creative can get a little messy at times, and no one knows this better than children.  Clay Puzzling is a kid-friendly handbuilding technique that is easy, fun and well...a little messy!  So get ready to get dirty and give Clay Puzzling a try. 

Clay Puzzling is piecing together small chunks of clay to create a larger shape - just like putting together pieces of a puzzle! 

Clay Puzzling Step-by-Step

1. Select a bisque shape as your mold.  Look for a shape with a flat bottom, so that your piece won't wobble. (We used the Lafayette Salad Plate and Barcelona Bowl)

2. Select your clay.  Cut off a slab of clay using Wire Clay Cutters.  Roll part of the slab into a coil.

3. Cut your coil into pieces using Clay Sculpting Tools.  Roll each piece into a ball.

4. Press your ball into your mold.  Then squish another ball next to it, slightly overlapping.  Continue in this pattern until your entire mold is covered.

5. Use a wet Hydra Art Sponge to smooth over areas of your shape to give it a finished look.

6. Cover your Clay Puzzling masterpiece with plastic so it doesn't dry out too fast.  Once completely dry, you can fire it according to the instructions for your clay.
7.  After the initial firing, use Duncan Courtyards and Concepts to paint your piece.  Fire a second time to cone 06.

We thought Clay Puzzling was the perfect technique to discuss for the first blog edition of The Dirt since it is especially "dirty"!  And even though I am supposed to be an adult now that I just got married and am almost 30, we all have a little kid inside of us and it is refreshing to let it out every now and then.  So no matter your age, go get your hands dirty.  But let me warn you, Clay Puzzling can be addictive!

Veiw Materials list at:  Clay Puzzling

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