Doodle Designs and Ceramic Bead Making

I love to doodle and have been doing it since I was a young child.  Like when I was supposed to be listening to the teacher in class or to the professor while lecturing in college - Lol.  My doodles are being brought to life with my ceramic beads.  Let me show you!

This is fired ceramic bisque so it is porous.  That makes it not stick when I press the wet clay on top to transfer the image.  Then I use an exacto knife or cookie cutter to get a final shape.  This first picture is random lines, dots and circles placed in somewhat of a pattern.

These are simple line animals that take on a new life in clay and with different glaze techniques.  The finished piece has the lines sitting 3D on top of the ceramic base.  You will see a finished disc in the last picture.

These doodles are actually textures taken from an old crocheted doily, a piece of burlap and a sea shell.  So nature and items around your home can give interesting results, too.

Here is the swirly circle with little line accents.  I cut it into a 40mm circle and made it a large disc by putting another hole in the middle.  I glazed it in shiny ice blue.  This is a fun cabochon, too!

I have a board on my Pinterest page with lots of doodling ideas.  You can find it here:
https://www.pinterest.com/potterybeads/doodle-designs/

I welcome you to try it with other craft mediums, too.  Have fun!  Michelle McCarthy

Doodle Designs

I have been playing around with doodle designs and drawing them onto ceramic clay.  I use a dull pencil to do this.  This becomes my mold or texture for making my pendant.

Here is my original doodle:

Here it is drawn into the clay and fired:

I rolled the ceramic clay into a 1/4" thick piece and pressed it onto the mold and cut it into a rectangle pendant.  I added holes at the top corners.  After it dried, I cleaned all the rough edges and fired it into bisque.  Then I glazed it in shiny ice blue and fired it in my kiln on special racks for the second time.

Ready to use pendant:

I wanted to keep this necklace simple, so I used 22g silver wire to make connectors to the chain.  I accented the pendant with 5mm silver spacer beads and Czech glass.  The chain is 18" and is finsihed with a small silver toggle clasp.

I have a bunch of ideas brewing for more designs.  This is really a lot of fun, and if you need some ideas, Pinterest has endless doodles you can try.  You could also do this technique with polymer clay and other mold making materials.

Michelle McCarthy
Firefly Design Studio