Betty Gerstner's China Painting Information on the Web - Student's Gallery

Blue Fish and Shell Decorated Box

For this box, Cindy took a plain rectangular box, added fish, shells and starfish, using Nancy Benedetti's sculpture paste, and then painted these items, creating the appearance of coral with the sculpture paste. After all of this was fired, Cindy painted the attached pieces in colorful hues using regular china paint. She painted the background using a stippled effect.

Pink Fish and Shell Decorated Box

This box was done the same way as the Blue Fish and Shell Decorated Box on the left. Only instead of painting a stippled background, she painted a smooth dainty pink background.

Limoges Dinner Set Decorated with Fish

Like Avis, Cindy also painted a dinner set. Only each of her plates were rimmed with the same fish design. The plate above is the dinner plate. She also painted some cup and saucer sets to match. I think this was a set of 12 place settings and Cindy thought she was never going to finish. Plus, she kept adding items onto the set. She did complete it though and now has a beautiful dinner set.

Shellfish Ornament

This is one of the ornaments that I got from Nancy Benedetti. She creates elaborately decorated ornaments to be painted by china painters. When Cindy first painted this ornament with luster, she thought the color that resulted was "ugly". So she painted it again. She still did not like it. But after she painted the "seaweed" decoration and some of the "baubles" with Liquid Bright Gold, it looked great. I think it has a slightly "antique" look.

CYNDY URRY

Cyndy painted with me for over 17 years. She is an accomplished ceramic artist, having worked with ceramics and throwing on the wheel for over 30 years. She also paints in various mediums, including watercolor and oil and she makes beautiful beaded jewelry. Cyndy is also a diver and her subjects often reflect her love of the ocean. Cyndy still lives on the Big Island, though she has plans to move to South Carolina. Click on the thumbnail or title to enlarge the painted piece.

Sea Life Vase This vase is about 13 1/2 inches tall. Cindy first attached the sea creatures to the vase, using Nancy Benedetti's sculpture paste. Cindy poured the sea creatures herself in my studio. She created the appearance of coral with the sculpture paste. For the next fire, Cindy started painting the sea creatures, and background with regular china paint, using a stiple brush applied to a light turquoise blue color on the background of the vase. After this was fired, Cindy said she did not quite like the look of the vase background. I suggested that she could use some luster and dispersing fluid and "pour" the appearance of water around the vase. She liked this idea. So, using three luster colors (in the blue green range) and Marci's Non-Toxic Dispersing Fluid, Cindy created the watery background you see on this vase. Then she painted the lines of coral that had been created by pulling the sculpture paste out from the shells What really made it nice was that, because she had the background of light turquoise, in areas where the dispersing fluid lifted the luster, the light turquoise shows through. Also, because regular china paint was applied before the luster, the luster on the vase had a "satiny" surface rather than the mirror-like finish you usually see with luster.	Art Bowl This bowl was a project my students did in a special series of classes. I learned this technique in a seminar at the OPAR school with Nancy Benedetti. The bowls we did in the class I attended were not painted a color, except for a little light pink near the base and some chartreuse in the center of the bowl. The base and leaves were painted in various green shades. And the edges of the bowl were trimmed with color (outside rim) and gold (inside rim). Cindy decide to take a different approach. She first painted the inside layer of her bowl with American Beauty china paint and the outside with a "pinky-purple" shade. After that was fired, she painted the bowl with halo luster. Then she trimmed the edges with gold. The leaves at the base were painted with regular china paint. Because of the rich colors painted in china paint, before the luster application, I think it gave the bowl a very rich "fuchsia" color.

Blue Fish and Shell Decorated Box For this box, Cindy took a plain rectangular box, added fish, shells and starfish, using Nancy Benedetti's sculpture paste, and then painted these items, creating the appearance of coral with the sculpture paste. After all of this was fired, Cindy painted the attached pieces in colorful hues using regular china paint. She painted the background using a stippled effect.	Pink Fish and Shell Decorated Box This box was done the same way as the Blue Fish and Shell Decorated Box on the left. Only instead of painting a stippled background, she painted a smooth dainty pink background.

Limoges Dinner Set Decorated with Fish Like Avis, Cindy also painted a dinner set. Only each of her plates were rimmed with the same fish design. The plate above is the dinner plate. She also painted some cup and saucer sets to match. I think this was a set of 12 place settings and Cindy thought she was never going to finish. Plus, she kept adding items onto the set. She did complete it though and now has a beautiful dinner set.	Shellfish Ornament This is one of the ornaments that I got from Nancy Benedetti. She creates elaborately decorated ornaments to be painted by china painters. When Cindy first painted this ornament with luster, she thought the color that resulted was "ugly". So she painted it again. She still did not like it. But after she painted the "seaweed" decoration and some of the "baubles" with Liquid Bright Gold, it looked great. I think it has a slightly "antique" look.

Hand Thrown Bowl with Sea Life