"gingerbread" House Of Clay.

[jrgpots]

My wife volunteered me to make a gingerbread masterpiece for next year's hospital charity. Does anyone have experiece in slab building churches, etc? I want to use clay instead of gingerbread. If any of you have done this, any pics would be appreciated.

 

Jed

[Diane Puckett]

I have not, but having tried to make one out of gingerbread years ago, I think clay would be easier!

[oldlady]

check out the website Windy meadows.  jan richardson has been making buildings in miniature for years, i got my first from her during the 70s when she lived in maryland.  sheis now in washington state and spends time in florida during the winter.  look on ebay too.  some are a few inches each way some are over a foot tall.  all wonderful.

[Biglou13]

I've made ginger bread houses in cooking school.

To over simplify the house walls are ginger bread heald together and decorated by royal icing.

 

making the walls and celing panels of clay would be quite easy.....roll out slabs and cut. Now all you need is "royal icing " for the ceramic pieces. There is proabably some construction adhesive you could use that could replace the royal icing. I'm sure some Home Depot savvy potter will have suggestions. Spray foam insulation would make great snow drifts and might work for the joinery, there is a product called great stuff which can take a coat of paint when cured.

 

You could just build and join clay in traditional manner. But it would loose that "ginger bread" charm,feel and look.

[Surubee]

You could try putting some thick white slip through a cake decorating tube fitted with a special tip to get that gingerbread icing look.

(As a disclaimer, I have not tried this, but I think it would work.) 

 

Susan

[Babs]

Best thing about gingerbread houses is that you can eat them

Here's a lantern I made from throwing two baseless cylinders , slicing them, basing them on a slab, then adding bits and pieces. Spiders love'em.

Could adapt this and pull them to shape desired after slicing them.

[Chris Campbell]

I used to build bird houses and garden villas out of clay. I have used Terra Cotta, Red Stonware both alone and mixed with paper and Porcelain. The buildings are faily easy to make and once you get into it you will probably make more because you will want to improve and refine.

Best tip is to cut out windows and doors and do fancy texturing while the pieces are still flat on the table ... Then assemble. I created rolling texture tools with a hot glue gun on PVC pipes. I joined the pieces using really thick slip made from the same clay body. Consider making them luminaries for extra pizzazz.

Here is a link to some images and instructions on my site:

 

http://ccpottery.com/villas/

[jrgpots]

Best thing about gingerbread houses is that you can eat them

Here's a lantern I made from throwing two baseless cylinders , slicing them, basing them on a slab, then adding bits and pieces. Spiders love'em.

P1020085.JPG

Could adapt this and pull them to shape desired after slicing them.

P1020087.JPG

Very cute. I love the form!

 

Jed

[jrgpots]

I used to build bird houses and garden villas out of clay. I have used Terra Cotta, Red Stonware both alone and mixed with paper and Porcelain. The buildings are faily easy to make and once you get into it you will probably make more because you will want to improve and refine.

Best tip is to cut out windows and doors and do fancy texturing while the pieces are still flat on the table ... Then assemble. I created rolling texture tools with a hot glue gun on PVC pipes. I joined the pieces using really thick slip made from the same clay body. Consider making them luminaries for extra pizzazz.

Here is a link to some images and instructions on my site:

http://ccpottery.com/villas/

They make fantastic luminaries especially along a pathway. Thank you for sharing. I can almost invision a street lined with these "townhomes.". I think I will try an old english style row of similar houses.

[Diane Puckett]

I have made some luminaries similar to the ones Chris shows. It is really helpful to lay out a design on paper and cut out full-size pattern pieces ahead of time. I use paper clay slip for assembly. If you finish firing and want some more brightly color decorated areas against brown clay, acrylic paint is an option, especially if you want to replicate candy colors.

[jrgpots]

I have made some luminaries similar to the ones Chris shows. It is really helpful to lay out a design on paper and cut out full-size pattern pieces ahead of time. I use paper clay slip for assembly. If you finish firing and want some more brightly color decorated areas against brown clay, acrylic paint is an option, especially if you want to replicate candy colors.

I have a full year to test and perfect. I think I will try dovetailing the edges like old european buildings, using white slip for royal icing effect.

 

Jed

[Babs]

Lovely stuff Chris!,

have a Dutch friend who does the frontages of rows of houses with lots of detail, she creates streets fronts on wall plaques. Lots of detail and colour.