KAREN DEUCHAR

Due to surgery and emphasis on family, Karen has been away from china painting for the last few years.  She plans to start classes again as soon as time permits.

In the first class Karen took with me, an incident happened that showed me how talented she is.  Karen and another student (who has had to stop classes for now because of work obligations), started class the same day.  They sat across from each other which made it easier for me to work with them together.

The other student chose to paint Plumerias and Karen picked the Hibiscus.  They each traced their design on their fudge plate.  Then, just before they were to begin painting, I accidentally spilled medium all over Karen's plate.  I immediately began wiping it up. Of course, this smeared her drawing.

Because they had spent the better part of class learning to mix paints and the uses of some of the china painting items I supply in a "student kit", it was not too long before the class session would end.  Because of this, I suggested that Karen finish cleaning off her plate and then just practice some of the brush strokes as I showed them to the other student and worked with her to complete the first fire of her plate.  I said that then Karen could resume painting her first fire in the next session.  She agreed to this and so I started showing them how to do the painting.  Shortly, I noticed that Karen had painted a full Hibiscus flower on her plate with the brush strokes I was showing her and the other student.  I said, "Karen that is good enough to fire!" And so we did.

Click on the thumbnail or title to enlarge the painted piece.

Art Bowl

Karen did this bowl in the special class I did after learning the technique in a seminar at the OPAR school with Nancy Benedetti.

The bowls are done by dipping cloth in slip and draping it over a balloon.  The base is shaped in a circle and attached to the bowl while it is still draped over the balloon.

Because Karen didn't get her base quite centered in the middle of the top of the balloon, the opening of the bowl kind of tipped down on one side.  This actually gave it a graceful appearance and added to the beauty of the bowl (I think).

Baby Shoe with Roses

This was a little baby shoe that I got from Nancy Benedetti.  I think that Karen did a great job painting it.  Although it may not be that obvious in the photo, she painted the surface of the shoe in a pale yellow.