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Painted plate flower & the morality of destroying butter pats!

concretenprimroses
12 years ago

A little while back I started painting small plates in an attempt to replicate some pretty ones that Toomuchglass had sent me.

Below is my first painted plate flower ready for its spoon and to go out in the garden to be tested for the winter. The two smaller plates and the gold on the glass glob were painted by me (per my previous post).

{{gwi:196976}}

Well, doncha know when we went to Boston last Saturday I looked on the computer to find a convenient Michaels on the way and bought 2 more colors, magenta and ivory? I remembered someone posted here once about painting the whole glass plate. I also experimented with my technique (read: put paint on with a popsicle stick). Here is the batch I am "cooking" this morning. Once the sunflower one is cool, I'm going to put ivory accent lines on it to show off the petals better. The mulitple tiny blue flowers on the large plate had been gold-turned brown when I bought it. The old paint was flaking off so I scrubbed as much as I could away and tried blue. The doll tea cups I painted petals inside and out and the handles green but they are hard to see. I'm not sure where I'm going with the scallop edged one, but so far so good.

{{gwi:196978}}

So now I'm obsessed with painting plates. I got these 9 at the flea market, the whole lot for a dollar. I think no one wanted them because of the heraldry coats of arms on them, but they are quite nice quality and some of them a very pretty shape. PERFECT!

{{gwi:196979}}

I searched for "flower dish" and "small dish" on ebay and discovered the world of butter pats including some vintage ones that look at lot like my pretty flower plates that got me started on this. I was looking to learn painting techniques, because I am not a painter. I thought, Oh butter pats are the perfect size and no one uses them any more - I should be able to collect a bunch of them cheap! I also discovered that what I thought were doll dishes in my collection were in fact butter pats. Well, there is a world of obsessed "butter pat" collectors who fill shelves with these cute little dishes. SO I've collected a few now too (at reasonable, ie less than $1 ea, prices.

{{gwi:196980}}

Plus one random flower shaped plate in the above pic.

Is it wrong to paint them? Do I care?

TFL

Kathy

Here is a link that might be useful: My previous post about painting plates

Comments (18)

  • marylee_2010
    12 years ago

    WOW, Kathy, you have started a whole new craze. You jumped in with both feet and you are doing a great job. Your plate flowers will certainly be "one of a kind originals". It is really exciting to start something new, isn't it? Thanks so much for sharing.

    Marylee

  • toomuchglass
    12 years ago

    You've been bitten by the painting bug !!!! LOL everything looks awesome . I know that paint will hold up over winter....
    It's some good stuff ! This makes it alot easier than finding just the right color plates - now you can custom make them :)

  • oldgraymare
    12 years ago

    They look amazing! I havent tried doing plate flowers..yet, but with all the beautiful ones on this forum I just might have to try one!!!

  • cheribelle
    12 years ago

    Morality, hhhmmm, that's a tough one since I have been using sweet little Haviland china saucers. Guess I can't judge!

    I did discover this morning that "Goof Off" will remove that old gold on those fancy plates that have it almost worn off.

  • pixie_lou
    12 years ago

    So that's what those little plates are called - butter pats. I have a bunch of pressed glass ones with gold edges. I serve mini cupcakes on them normally!

    Love the painting on the plates. But I think less is more.

  • concretenprimroses
    Original Author
    12 years ago

    I've actually got a dozen or so pressed glass ones too, in several colors. Several have Geo. Washington on them. The only way I've used the glass ones so far is as a "spacer" if the dishes of a plate flower seemed to close together because of shape. And also have a few more ceramic ones I forgot to put in this picture. They are all very cute AND also the perfect size for flower centers.

    Mini cupcake plates, very nice idea.

    I'm not sure what you are referring to Pixie Lou, but I usually think that more is more, and it certainly gets me into trouble sometimes!

    Kathy

  • jeannespines
    12 years ago

    As a 'dishlover' (me), I am enjoying seeing your vision of another media for plate flowers/totems/etc. I would have a hard time using some of these dishes but I admire the many of you that create some beautiful GJ pieces! So as a dishlover, more is more! LOL! TFS, crete! Jeanne S.

  • pixie_lou
    12 years ago

    Kathy - I just meant, that IMHO, I kinda like the minimal use of the paint. On the completed plate flower you posted - I like the paint on the middle plate, but I wonder if the center small plate would look a little better with less paint - maybe just the flower, not the green background. I like the little blue dots on the lace edge plate.

    Again - my opinion only. If your customers prefer the fully painted ones, then by all means, pile on the paint.

  • nanatricia
    12 years ago

    Looking great love them!!!!

  • concretenprimroses
    Original Author
    12 years ago

    Thinking about what Pixie Lou said: that little middle plate looked great in just black and white. Very dramatic. I decided that probably people would prefer color. But I may make a few black and white plate flowers to try it out. Gotta get more of the paint pens. The nearest Michaels is 60 miles away. I just hate to pay shipping, so may try to get dh to go when he is in Concord.

    Kathy

  • pixie_lou
    12 years ago

    I personally would love a black and white plate flower. But that is just me being odd.

    What about doing the flower outline in a color, not black.

    Do you have Christmas Tree Shops around you? I've bought white saucers there for 69 cents each. I didn't even have to buy the tea cup!

  • concretenprimroses
    Original Author
    12 years ago

    No Christmas tree shops either. If I make a Christmas shopping road trip with some friends, I may go to one. I am in the wilds of semi rural New England. And our Joann's got flooded out by Irene. But it is reopening the day after giving thanks, I hear.

    But saucers are pretty cheap 2nd hand.

    Kathy

  • pixie_lou
    12 years ago

    Your comment about the black and white plate flower inspired me to take out my black and white dishes and stack them up. I never use the big plates since they do not fit in my dishwasher - but I use the solid black luncheon plates and the small b&w bread plates every day. I kinda like them as plate flowers! Though I can understand why many people may not be as inspired! After all, I did put these dishes on my wedding registry!

    {{gwi:196981}}

  • concretenprimroses
    Original Author
    12 years ago

    I love them! That would be an awesome plate flower.
    You could market them to nascar fans too.
    At a flea mkt in town there are some b&w plates with pretty flowers on the rim. They are too expensive but they too would make great plate flowers. I keep eying them, hoping they will go down in price.
    Kathy

  • pixie_lou
    12 years ago

    Ya know, I have the feeling Santa Clause may be on the lookout for service for 12 for me. The more I look at that picture, I'm envisioning painting the center of the saucer bright yellow. . .maybe skip the solid black luncheon plates in the center. . .

  • concretenprimroses
    Original Author
    12 years ago

    I love that idea.
    Here is a yellow center with gold dots. I dragged my brush through the green a bit. You would probably prefer straight yellow. Just gold (or another color) dots might be interesting. I made the dots with a gold pebeo 150 outline tube. The outliners are dimensional which is fun.

    {{gwi:196982}}

    Kathy

  • oldcrafty
    12 years ago

    Absolutely gorgeous and so neat to have "one of a kinds"

  • flowers12
    12 years ago

    concretenprimroses, Kathy, I love your painting of the plates. I'm interested in painting clear glass saucers with the Pebeo 160 paint. It looks like you painted a bowl red with a yellow center. Was the bowl originally clear glass? I looked on this website and it shows how to paint on clear glass and then put it in the oven to cure. http://www.dickblick.com/products/pebeo-vitrea-160/
    Now I'm wondering how the paint looks if you try to cover the entire saucer, do the brush marks show? Any comments will help. Thanks,
    Marilyn

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