The End Of Ceramic Christmas Trees

I have some not-so-good important news for you today...but also some hope if you still want a ceramic Christmas Tree handmade by Dark Horse Arts and Gifts. We were so overwhelmed this past year (2011) with orders for our trees, that as of today we are still fulfilling orders from December!

11 Inch Ceramic Christmas Tree

A BIG THANK YOU to all of our patient and loyal customers who have been waiting for their own special tree to be completed so long after purchasing. We are doing our best, but as you may know there have been some significant obstacles...

As you may or may not know, Mom had a heart attack and had open-heart surgery, only to have that grafting fail in the month following the original surgery. She now has several stents and is doing much better. Glenn has his own disabilities due to a former back surgery a few years ago for a thankfully benign, but large tumor in his lower lumbar area. Then there is me...

After taking care of everyone else while running our little business and working full time, I broke my back in January 2011 (lifting of course a bucket of clay to pour into a Christmas Tree mold), however I did not know that it was actually broken until two vertebrae completely collapsed and the pain forced me to the Emergency Room. Long story short...believe me you don't want to hear all the details and I prefer not to re-hash them... I had back surgery and it was found that I had cancer. Apparently what appeared to be a breast cyst was actually breast cancer that had metastasized to my bones; specifically my spine, ribs and pelvic areas.

19" Ceramic White Christmas

That was back in May of 2011, and since then it has been an experience of a lifetime. So many friends and even strangers stepped forward to help me get the alternative treatment I was seeking, because there was no way that I was going to have chemo or radiation. Glenn was so wonderful in caring for me and he even started a Facebook page here: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Please-Help-Jeanie-2-Cancer-Cure/176257085764887
so that people could donate whatever amount they could to help me get to a clinic in Mexico to undergo alternative cancer treatment. If you want to know more, you can visit my True Story here where I contributed to a natural health website in hopes of helping others and getting the word out that there are alternatives that work.

I am still undergoing treatment, but making good progress, finally.  I was down to 89lbs when I came back from Mexico, and as it turned out, the treatment protocol they had me doing was helping, but was not as aggressive as my cancer. That is why I now take Protocel for my cancer and again, you can read more details here.

Now that all three of our team have our fair share of obstacles and challenges, we have with great regret decided that we can no longer continue our ceramics business.

We have our business up for sale, and we have a couple of interested buyers.  This process will take some time though.

Because we had so many heart-warming stories for our wonderful customers about their family traditions including a Ceramic Christmas Tree (started by Mom or Grandma, etc.) and that they wanted to carry on this tradition and purchased our vintage-style, handmade new Ceramic Christmas Trees made to order just for them, we have decided to complete the orders we still have outstanding which we anticipate being done no later than June 2012, and we have opened up our dedicated website http://www.CeramicChristmasTrees.info to accept "pre-orders" of trees for this, our final year.

7" Miniature Collection

You have the opportunity for a limited time to pre-order any of our Ceramic Christmas Trees on the website and we will make your tree starting in July and you will receive your order no later than Thanksgiving.

As you can imagine, we cannot produce many more trees given our health situations - it has definitely slowed us down and I am only able to supervise and do very small things to help. So, to be frank, if you want a tree from us, or a collection of trees, order now.

As I mentioned, it is with deep regret that  we have to stop making the ceramics that we so love and enjoy making for others to treasure, but I am sure that you can understand given the circumstances.

Whether we are able to sell our Dark Horse Arts and Gifts ceramic business or not, this pre-order season starting now until we reach maximum orders we can fulfill before Thanksgiving will be the last that we make.

We are also selling the last of our other in-stock items at our Etsy store here:  http://DarkHorseStore.etsy.com

Once the items you see there are gone, we will not be producing anymore.

Once again, we wish to truly thank all of the wonderful people who have stepped forward to help us in out times of need, and our continuing need for support, including the great folks at TACA (Tucson Arts and Crafts Association). We are very fortunate and grateful to everyone.

We hope to hear from you and if we can make that Special Ceramic Christmas Tree or other item for you before we close our 'virtual doors' then we will be very happy to do so!

All my best wishes for your great health and happiness in all things,
Jeanie

Silver Bells Collection

Old Fashioned Deluxe Collection

Exclusive Ceramic Christmas Tree Site Is Up!

We have been working on a new website at CeramicChristmasTrees.info to bring together all our poplular Dark Horse Arts and Gifts ceramic Chrsitmas Trees in one place - and it is up and running beautifully! It has been exciting to create this new website to showcase our entire collection, plus checkout is easier with major credit card or PayPal (your choice).

We love making ceramic Christmas Trees. Every one is a little different since they are entirely handmade. We put a little piece of ourselves into every tree because we know that we are helping to create new and lasting memories of Christmas for the familes that get our trees. It is very rewarding for us to have such wonderful customers and awesome feedback.

Our new website allows for lots of customization features like choosing the oclor star that you want, adding a music box, different bases for each tree, plus we offer 3 sizes of trees and more...

Come and check out our new site here:  CeramicChristmasTrees.info

and if you have one of our trees already, please leave us a rating and feedback so that others can benefit from your shopping experience with us :)

May every day bring bring you the joy of Christmas!

Liquid Clay to Shining Lights - Ceramic Christmas Trees, Part 2

Got a little delayed in making this Part 2 - sorry 'bout that! Things can get a little crazy with the holidays coming up --- I am sure you understand ;)  Last time we left off with our ceramic Christmas Tree almost ready to be fired.  We poured the tree, put holes in it for lights and now it's dry and ready for cleaning!

When we poured our Christmas Tree mold, there were 3 parts to the mold, so when we removed it, there are 3 seams on the tree. And who wants to have a tree with seams?Using a small cleaning tool, much like an exact knife but with one straight end and one flat end, I carefully scrape off the clay seams being careful not to chip the tree since it is in a very fragile dry unfired clay state - called "greenware".

Oh, and did I mention the holes yet? Each hole needs to be carefully cleaned and checked for fit.  While the clay was drying, shrinkage does occur so we need to go over each hole again to make sure there is nothing blocking (dry clay remnants in the hole) and that the hole is still big enough for the twist light that we will be placing on each branch later.

After cleaning the tree and base, each one is wiped down with a wet soft sponge to remove any remaining mold seam marks so that it is ready to be fired in the kiln.



Once completely cleaned, we can "fire" our tree in the kiln which will take it from the greenware state into the ceramic bisque stage, ready for glazing! It will take about 4 hours in the kiln, at a temperature of 1800 degrees Fahrenheit and the kiln will take about 8 hours to cool down before we can remove the tree.

Here is the tree just about to be removed from the kiln - it is bisque now and ready to paint!

OK, we are in the final stretch.  Part 3 coming up... we will glaze our tree and get it ready for one more firing and then we can decorate our tree and get it ready for one lucky winner of our giveaway!

I hope that seeing how we make our ceramic Christmas Trees is interesting so far :) 

Wishing you great health and happiness until next time,
Jeanie

Liquid Clay to Shining Lights - Ceramic Christmas Trees, Part 1

We really love making ceramic Christmas Trees for everyone, and I wanted to share some of the process of making these beautiful Christmas Trees out of clay. You may or may not know, but all our ceramic art at DarkHorseStore.com starts out as liquid clay. All our clay comes from the Southwestern United States and is top quality.

I start by mixing the clay with an electric drill mixer. Although we originally get the clay in gallons, it needs to be mixed before every use to make it uniform, otherwise pieces would come out lopsided and weak in places. So after the mixing, here is what a bucket of liquid clay looks like:

 

This is the start of our tree!

Next step, pouring the clay (called "slip" in ceramic terms) into our mold which is made out of heavy plaster. The plaster will absorb the water from the clay, pulling the clay into the sides of the mold, which creates the "skin" or shape of the piece we are molding. This next picture shows the tree mold being slowly poured with our clay slip.

Once the water starts getting absorbed by the plaster, you will see the slip start to recede within the cavity of the mold. So we slowly add more slip to fill it up. The pouring for this piece will take approximately 15 minutes. But each piece is different and must be checked to be sure that enough of the clay has formed a skin within the mold, otherwise the piece will be too thin and fragile.

Once the desired thickness is achieved, I slowly pour out the remainder of the slip back into my original bucket to be used again. Pouring out the mold takes a few minutes and requires a good bit of turning, twisting and maneuvering to remove any pockets of the clay from inside the piece. The mold must be left upside down for a few minutes to allow the remaining slip to pour out. This is also the start the drying process inside the mold, which we want to be as even as possible.

Want to build muscle?  Start making ceramics! I have to tell you, with the tree mold having a dry weight of 20 pounds, then adding wet clay, the mold ends up weighing over 32 lbs. Lifting, pouring, pouring out, etc. - that will build muscle on ya! ;)

Since the mold has absorbed the water from our slip, the mold itself will stay wet for about a day or two, making it difficult to pour another piece because the mold will not absorb as well the 2nd time. So quite often, we can only pour one piece per day. At times we can get two pieces in a day, especially if we can place the mold outside during one of our sunny Arizona days which helps it to dry.

Now that our piece is poured out, what next? Well, if you have not noticed yet... ceramics is a messy business! Liquid clay is not a neat and tidy substance to work with. In fact, it gets everywhere. Once it dries, it will be brittle and can turn into dust, so getting it off of our mold needs to take priority not only for the sake of mess, but also to keep the mold in good condition.

Now the mold is cleaned, and the neck of the mold has been trimmed as well. The piece needs to sit in the mold for a few minutes more to be sure that it is set and slightly hardened, otherwise it will turn to mush when we try to remove it.

Now we are ready to take the tree out of the mold. At this stage, the tree is made out of very wet, malleable clay. We must remove it from the mold before it gets too dry or else it will crack as the water absorbs further into the mold and the drying clay starts to shrink. Most pieces are a little stubborn.... enter the mallet!

This Christmas Tree mold is made of 3 separate sections. Each section must be removed separately and very carefully so that we do not smush and ruin the details on the tree itself. When the last section is ready to be pried away from the piece, I use a large rubber mallet to gently strike the mold which creates just enough jarring motion to help the wet clay tree to separate from the mold. The piece sort of "pops-up" slightly as I pound. This is always a tricky bit because I certainly don't want to chip or break the delicate clay piece; which can and does happen - but I also want to get our tree out of the mold, so I have to risk it! ;) 

 

  

 

Once the tree is out, you may notice that there are no holes in it yet - so how are we going to light our tree? I use a small drill bit to hand-drill each of the 50+ holes in our tree where all the colored lights will go, plus I have very carefully position the bit and drill the top of the tree for the star. Although the clay is still wet, special care must be taken not to crack any of the limbs, or to apply too much pressure which could cause the tree to collapse altogether.

Whew!  Our tree is ready to be dried now before it moves on to the next step.

Time for the start of pouring the clay into our tree mold until the holes are hand-drilled is 1 and a 1/2 hours.  Tomorrow, the tree will be fully dried and we can start to clean the mold seams and our holes to get ready for firing in the kiln. The base for this tree was poured at the same time and you may notice it in the background of a couple of the pictures above.

I hope you enjoyed this little glimpse into the start of making our Christmas Tree out of clay. Join me in the next post to continue making our tree, and meanwhile, please leave me a comment and let me know what you think!  :)

Thanks~ Jeanie

Ceramic Christmas Trees - new additions

It may seem odd, but it is the end of September and we are already getting ready for the Christmas and holiday season with our newest additions this year - 12 inch tall ceramic Christmas Trees! We had so much fun last year with the smaller versions - and great feedback from everyone who got one in 2009 (thank you!) - that we are sure this will be a fun and exciting holiday season again this year :)

We are currently making all types of styles including white ceramic Christmas trees, classic ceramic Christmas trees in evergreen (some with permanent 'snow' flocking and some without), and we are trying out a few surprises too.... pictures to come soon!

We have a special pre-holiday sale going on now at our Etsy shop here:  http://www.etsy.com/shop/DarkHorseStore?section_id=7110147
Sale prices end November 15, 2010.

We hope you love these holiday ceramic trees as much as we do!

Do you want to paint your own?  Here is a bare naked, but fully fired bisque ceramic Christmas tree all ready to paint! Comes with the electric light kit, bulbs and star :)