Make "lives here" signs yourself

What you need:

• volume
• water
• Clay colors
• paint brush

You have decided to make a very individual sign for your apartment door. You want your new "lives here" sign off volume and if it works well, you can design even more signs and then give them away as gifts.

Making signs out of clay

• Door signs made of clay and then provided with a weatherproof glaze can remain on the front door or apartment door all year round. They don't mind a little frost, snow or rain either.
• It is best to make a sketch of what your sign will look like before starting your work. The size of the base area that you then need also depends on this. Decide on a round, oval or square basic shape.
• Now put these aside and start producing the motifs that you want to apply.

Create "Here Lives" motifs

1. Now you create the motifs and these are each glued on with slip. You make slip from clay residues and water. You add water to the clay and stir it with a whisk to a pulpy mass. Put this in a can and cover it so that it doesn't dry out.


Making slip - this is how it works for pottery

If you want to make slip, you don't need a lot of material for it. In the …

2. Roughen the motif parts and the background a little with a needle, apply slip to the surfaces to be glued and press them together. The slip dries in a short time and the motifs hold. Slightly wipe away any slip with a damp cloth. You have to edit the sign in such a way that the surface is not much drier than the motif parts.
3. The design is then entirely up to you. You can bring up landscapes or animals and people, as well as flowers or individual trees. You can also add the writing "Here lives" and the names with clay, but that would be very time-consuming.
4. You can also apply the writing with clay paint, so you can also color the motifs in bright colors.
5. Now put the whole thing in a ceramic kiln and it will be fired according to the instructions, which takes a long time.
6. After the signs have been fired, once everything has cooled down, you can brush them over with clear varnish.
7. If you should know beforehand that you will need holes in your shield, make them before you burn.