Making Holiday ornaments with images from the Dover Victorian Christmas collection.

It's been a while, but I'm happy to announce that I'm an official Dover Crafting Ambassador! Images from Dover books have been inspiring my tile designs for years, and now I'm happy to add a new collection of Christmas ornaments to my Etsy shop, just in time for the holidays.

Teddy bear with clown outfit from the Victorian Christmas collection.

These ornaments were created using images from the Dover Victorian Decorative Christmas Illustrations applied to my handmade ceramic tiles, and here's how I did it.

First I downloaded the collection and chose the images I wanted for my ornaments. Then I used photoshop to create a page of the images for small ornaments and 4x4" trivet tiles. The tiles were first glazed and fired and then a sheet of images was printed on decal paper with a HP laser printer.

The decal sheet is on the left, an array of tiles to be used are laid out on the right.

Cutting the image to be used for an ornament.

Here's the teddy bear.

Laying the cutout paper decal images onto the ornament tiles.

All cut out and ready to soak the decal paper.

After I've laid out all of the selected decals onto the tiles I want the images to be on, it's time to soak off the decals from their paper backing and apply to the tile surfaces.

I place the decal paper into water and soak it for about a minute, or until I can feel the paper backing releasing from the decal.

Releasing the decal from the paper backing.

It slides right off onto the glazed tile.

Here are all the tiles with decals ready to be fired on. They go into the kiln and get fired to 1950• F, fixing them permanently to the surface of the tile.

A selection of finished ornaments, some with raffia for hanging.

Thanks to Dover for inspiring my tile making for years, and for making me an Ambassador. I'll have more tutorials using images from their collections soon!!

For now you can find my decal ornaments, along with a collection of carved ornaments here, in my Etsy shop!

Thanks for listening!!