Fire Pottery in an Oven at Home

Although it isn't possible to fire pottery clay in an oven at home (see firing clay at home for ways to do this instead) - it is possible to oven bake ceramics decorated and painted with special paint.

For this craft you must start with pottery that is already glazed . This gives you a wide choice of things you can paint - almost all the pottery you buy in shops is already glazed (it has a shiny glass-like surface). We usually buy cheap white glass plates to decorate but you can find lots of different items that would work well.

To bake in the oven you need to use Pebeo Porcelain 150 paints. These are non-toxic paints (so safe for the children to use). They come in lots of colors and in paint format or marker format. When they have set you bake them in the oven to 'fix' them. You first need to dry the paint for 24 hours, then bake for 35 minutes at 150°C (300°F) in your oven.

The paint is not supposed to be on areas that will come into contact with food - but we do use ours on the plate rims and the outside of cups. Or for plates that are just decorative. Once fired, the china is dishwasher safe.

I have also found a paint called Marabu Porcelain Ceramic Paint that requires no baking - but haven't had a chance to try this yet.

Plain white china can be bought almost anywhere. Amazon.com do a nice white dinner set for example, or something more unusual, try this cow shaped butter dish.

The paints are also available on Amazon.com but they were cheaper at dickblick for example, so it is worth shopping around.

In the UK, you can buy the paints at Amazon - but Hayley sent me a link to BudgetBisque that not only stock the paints but can provide you with a whole range of interesting pottery to paint too. Opitec also sell some plain ceramics for decorating.

As well as making gifts and keepsakes, here are some ways to incorporate this into your homeschool projects!

I hope that gives you some great ideas for trying this great craft!