New Year - New Handmade Buttons

Wow it's the start of another year.  I can't believe how fast time flies.  My buttons at www.buttonsbyrobin.com have been doing really well and I've expanded to a line of button related jewelry at www.outspokenjewelry.com.  For 2012 I want to focus on a new medium - ceramics.  I'm teaching myself as I go along.  I have a small tabletop kiln and I'm learning to work with ceramics.  It's much more time consuming and complicated than you might think.  All the different glazes react differently and it's very difficult to get them to do what you want.  The picture here is my latest collection of buttons fresh out of the kiln this morning.  I'm happy with the bright red glaze I've achieved.  Red is a difficult colour to get right.  For some reason it has to be heated just right in the kiln for the colour to develop properly.  This bunch is a set of both ladybugs or ladybird ceramic buttons and red heart buttons.  I think the hearts may be great for the upcoming Valentines Day celebrations.  I think I'm going to make some similar red heart pendants for www.outspokenjewelry.com.  Right now the hearts can be found here http://www.etsy.com/listing/89529430/1-ceramic-red-heart-button-1-handmade.  I think ceramic buttons are difficult because for the everyday sewing project they can be a bit pricey.  For me to make them though they really aren't all that profitable given the huge amount of time it takes to make them.  For now I'll play an experiment and see how it goes.  I do love looking into the kiln in the morning after it fires to see what surprises it brings.  Hopefully as I learn more the surprises will be more good surprises instead of the uh oh! what happened surprises that seem to happen fairly often with ceramics.  I'll continue to post pictures here and write about what I learn as I go along.  I hope you enjoy the journey with me.