Bears In The Night

I figured I might as well title this piece something, so "Bears In The Night" sounded good to me. I used a wooden form to create the shape of this platter and then used a church key (can opener) to impress all the diamond-shaped points around the edges. The platter is made out of red earthenware clay and once it was bisque fired I painted several coats of white underglaze in the center of the platter. Over that I painted 3 coats of black underglaze. Then I used a sharp pin tool and etched the bears through the black underglaze. To finish this piece I'll brush 3 coats of clear over the platter and fire it to cone 05. Although the black underglaze looks gray in this picture, once it is fired it will be a glossy jet black. The outlines of the bears will be a bright glossy white.