All About Fifth Avenue Designs
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Welcome to Fifth Avenue Designs.
Looking for a unique, well-crafted ceramic gift or decoration for someone or for yourself?
You've found it!!!
We have been providing high-definition ceramic Christmas trees, gifts and decor for over 30 years throughout North Carolina and around the world.
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Services:
In addition to selling quality finished High Definition Ceramic Christmas Trees and gifts, Fifth Avenue Designs also provides services to other ceramic shops and ceramic enthusiasts.
These include being a supplier of ceramic products used in the making of ceramics from brushes to greenware, teaching ceramic classes, and firing of ceramic artware that others have created.
| Ceramic Supplies
Potters and folks making ceramic pieces can find and order their products at Fifth Avenue Designs.
Click on Ceramic Supplies page above for more inforamtion.
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Ceramic Classes
Fifth Avenue Designs' Master Cermic Artist, John Miller, shares his knowledge in a classroom setting.
Click on the Ceramic Classes page above to get started.
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Ceramic Firing
If you have greenwareyou have ready for firing,
just call Fifth Avenue Designs @ 919-718-5108
or e-mail to FifthAvenueDesigns@windstream.net.
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John Miller, Owner
A gifted Master Ceramic Artist with an eye for realism and exact detail in each ceramic piece he creates. Since 1975, he has been honing his skills in the ceramic arts and takes extraordinary care to produce only the highest quality pieces.
Featuring the painting echniques of dry-brushing, glazing, glaze layering and using a variety of low-fire paints and glazes, he achieves uch amazing features that many folks have to touch the piece to realize it is ceramic!
John has been featured in Car and Driver, in an article on enameling old car badges. He also has a degree in Ceramic Engineering and using this in the business of ceramic arts.
The concept for Fifth Avenue Designs stems from John's desire to bring this excellence into adding beauty and enjoyment of ceramic artware design to everyday life. Each piece he creats is made with the intention of lighting up the world of thos who choose to acquire it.
As a member of the Potter Guild, he shares techniques, ideas, and the love of the ceramic arts with others with the same enthusiasm. He also lends his technical expertise in the ceramic artware field to others as a consultant.
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Artistic Process Statement
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Most items are finished with a dry-brush or glazing technique.
We use regular, plaster, ceramic molds made in the USA. The mold is strapped together and then cast by hand with a liquid clay slip that we produce on-site. Once the mold is cast and clay particles have aligned to the proper thickness, the mold is then drained of excess slip. The cast piece then dries in the mold until the proper amount of water in the cast piece (greenware) is removed and the mold will then release once the mold strapping is removed. The greenware is then removed and additional necessary clay pieces, i.e. heads, arems, wings, flowers, etc. are then attached by using additional clay slip. The greenware then finishes drying.
Once dry, the greenware is then cleaned. All seams and defects are removed by hand. Art detail that was affected by cleaning the piece is carved, by hand, back into the piece. Detail examples are: fur, fins, leaves, branches, etc. The artware is then ready for firing.
Greenware is fired to 1950 deg F (cone 04 minimum) by our standards in our electric kilns. The average input firing time is 5 hours. Cooling time is 8-12 hours, depending upon the density of the load being fired. Once cooled, the greenware is now called bisque and is ready to be painted. The paint and brushes used are made solely for the purpose of dry-brushing or staining and/or glazing ceramic bisque manufactured by ceramic paint companies. Craft store products are never used.
To start the dry-brushing process, a base coat is applied to the bisque in a dark shade. Once the base coad dries, the dry-brush is lightly loaded with paint and most of the the pain then stippled off. After the delicate balance of paint is applied to the brush, it is then lightly brushed over the bisque piece perpendicular to the detail to begtin to highlight it. Then layers, upon layers, upon layers of powder-like color is added to achieve the realistic look of each of our pieces. The look should be soft and fine; not a water-color look. When the piece is finished, a spray sealer is used to seal the piece for easy cleaning. The sealer used is also made especially for ceramic artware.
When the dry-brushed piece is complete, it looks exactly like the animal or cloth or metal that it represents. If you are familiar with dry-brushing, you will realize the quality and the attention to detail. If you are not familiar with our dry-brushing technique, you will think you are looking at a piece of cloth, or metal, or stone, or fur.
The above process is performed in our studio, all by hand from beginning to end. Making the clay slip, pouring, attention to detail cleaning, firing to correct temperatures and meticulous painting and finishing.
Visit our Sanford showroom and studio. (hours by appointment) Call: 919.718.5108
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