Recycled Porcelain

Having seen the last pendant I made from some recycled porcelain, (see:http://www.creatingtrouble.co.uk/2011/03/mug-pendants.html ) another friend asked if I could possibly do something with her porcelain too. She has been collecting interesting pieces from walks along the river bank which means that the pieces she has are gorgeously smooth and soft to touch. None of the potential cuts that get me most times I do some mosaic work! Anyway, she gave me her pot of pieces and asked what I could do.

Jar of Goodies - pieces of broken porcelain picked up from the shore.

I was pretty impressed with her collection; look at all these pretty pieces! And that's just a few of them!











My friend actually makes some jewellery of her own, and some of her pieces were still inside the jar of goodies she lent me - I love how simple and pretty they are:

Simple idea: beautiful result - these pendants feel gorgeous.

I think she may be on to something here - leaving the smooth edges is worth it because they feel so lovely. However, I had a task so thought I should get on and do it. I couldn't bring myself to cut up all her smooth pieces and of course when you're working this small, you have to as you need little pieces to fit into the bezels. Eventually I chose three small bits that were of similar width and cut those three only. Here is the pendant before it was grouted:

Porcelain pendant ungrouted

Actually that photo is not just ungrouted, it's also unstuck: I wanted to get the smooth look back to the pieces before I stuck them down so did some fairly intense sanding before sticking the pieces in properly. Before I grouted it, I asked her over to the flat (wish I had a studio workshop!) as I knew she wanted to learn how to grout pieces. I got her to mix up some white grout to the right consistancy and then I showed her how to grout it - advising her to cover her ears. I still can't bear the sound of metal scraping over the porcelain / glass/ whatever it is you are grouting. It's one of those sounds that just goes straight down my back, like nails down a chalkboard. My boyfriend won't let me grout when he is home, and I totally understand why!

Anyway this is what it eventually looked like. Really sorry that the photo is so fuzzy - it was already about 10pm by that point (we had clearly also made dinner, watched a DVD and spent a long time chatting in addition to the grouting!) and I just couldn't get the light / camera right. I need a better lens I think as I must have taken over 20 photos and this was the best I managed to get.

Finished porcelain pendant

What do you think? I really like these upcycled pendants - I think they have sentimental charm as well as looking really unique and interesting. I'd love to make some more so if you have broken a favourite piece then let me know!