Creating Porcelain Buttons
On a chilly Autumn afternoon a friend and I participated in a porcelain button workshop at the Maltings in Farnham. If you have never been to The Maltings you have missed a rare gem! It is a beautiful old building, sitting on the bank of the river Wey. It was used as a tannery as far back as 1750, then a brewery until 1969 when it was bought by Farnham town to be an arts and community centre. Fast forward a few years, lots of money raised and dedicated restoration; the buildings are now used as 'a pioneering cultural organisation based in south west surrey with a regional, national and international reach... presenting a programme of performance, craft showcases and participation work which contributes to the town’s quality of life.' (https://farnhammaltings.com/about)
I absolutely love going to the Maltings, with its cosy coffee shop, wonderful monthly markets, great drama performances, and a variety of really interesting courses.
Which leads me nicely back to my porcelain button workshop. We were escorted to the pottery on site, run by resident potter, Penny Eccles. The pottery itself was such a fun room filled with many creations and creative promise! I was so happy and I hadn't done anything yet 😆 Penny was great at explaining how to use the porcelain correctly and safely to create some (hopefully pretty!) buttons. She had a wide range of stamps and mediums through which to add texture and form, and explained how to keep the clay wet and malleable.
With this information, I started to create some buttons. I knew I wanted to make enough (6) to be able to use them in a future project - a jumper? cardigan? bag?
The porcelain was harder to work with than normal clay, and I found out quickly that you really did need to work at a fast pace so that the clay didn't dry out, and therefore crack the porcelain. It was a lot of fun trying different designs - some which worked better than others...
Buttons made, we then needed to clean up the edges and holes we had placed in the middle. Porcelain can be very sharp when dry, so we were warned to be careful and how important a job this was. We then left them in Penny's expert care to glaze and fire.
I thoroughly enjoyed this class, would highly recommend it and definitely do it again! I left with a total awe of potters, as I found the whole process much more tricky than I thought I would.
A couple of weeks later and the buttons were back! I am so happy with them, they are shiny and beautiful! I can't wait to use them...
