As I discussed in last week’s post, I wanted to make an underplate for my latest WIP. This is always a little trickier when two parts of a set are made individually — and several days apart, at that. In fact, it’s one of the reasons I am keeping this process blog going. It reminds me to take lots of good photos at each stage of a project, which was really helpful in this instance.

With those photos to guide me, I was able to quickly locate the textures that I used to make the inside and outside of the basket, as well as the cherry blossom mold I used to make the corner embellishments. All that I needed now was some inspiration on a new approach to the side handles. For that, I turned to eBay and started looking for plates with handles. After reviewing dozens and dozens of listings, I finally found a few examples that:

1. Used handles that I liked, and;
2. Would work on this piece, and;
3. Was something I could figure out how to do on my own.

Since the berry basket is square, it makes sense to make a square underplate to go with it, so I decided it was time to break out  my set of graduated square cookie cutters. I started by cutting out a large square of embossed clay that was leftover from building the underplate, then cutting that in half. Then, I took a smaller square cutter and cut out another block to form the handle, and then attached that to the underplate. 

The final step was to make more of the cherry blossoms I used to accent the corners of the basket , which I placed where each handle joined the underplate. This extra detail will really tie these two pieces together so it won’t look like an afterthought. I can’t wait to see what they look like when they get back from the bisque kiln.

Enjoy the photo gallery!