How I make a ceramic butterfly jewelry holder, with a flower pressed into clay,

Transformation in life is beautifully represented by butterflies, as the caterpillar goes through a difficult change to emerge with beautiful wings. This ceramic piece celebrates the swallowtail butterfly. The yellow Anise swallowtail butterfly is a familiar sight in my San Diego garden. They love fennel plants and the cute caterpillars feast on fennel leaf. Since I always grow fennel in my garden, the swallowtails are familiar garden friends. In fact although I love to eat fennel, I buy mine at the market and I leave all the abundant fennel in my garden for the swallowtails. The flowers are also a favorite of bees.
Here on this ceramic jewelry dish, I have a swallowtail on a fennel flower. The flower and frond are pressed into raw ceramic clay and then I sculpt the swallowtail butterfly from the same clay as well. Once the clay has its first kiln firing, I can begin to add color and glaze. The coloring on the swallowtail is pretty specific, yellow with delicate black lines- all of the painting is with ceramic underglazes since regular paints cannot survive the high temperatures of the kiln. In the kiln, the clay is vitrified, becomes extremely dense and strong, and the coating of glaze is transformed into a layer of glossy glass. Real gold is added to the wings and plate edge and the gold process requires a third kiln firing. What do you think? #vuvuceramics #butterflyart #natureinspired