Now, I’m not sure how frugal this is, but here’s something that makes a killer gift for family members and engages the little ones in the idea that a hand-crafted gift can be far more special than a bought one.

Grab the Yellow Pages or load Google and look up “ceramics” in  your area. You’re

looking for craft shops that have a kiln and will let you purchase unglazed pottery, paint it and glaze it on site, and then will fire it for you. They usually advertise that they offer classes.

As soon as a child can hold a paintbrush (which is amazingly soon!), she or he can daub wonderful abstract designs on just about any piece of pottery you can buy. Greenware (plain, unfired ceramic) is inexpensive, and you can get big mugs, nice serving bowls, plates, and similar products that provide a simple “canvas” for a child to paint on. The mug shown here was done by my son when he was about four years old.

The process is easy: first, apply paint. After it’s dry, apply clear glaze, which will melt when heated to form the glassy finish we’re all familiar with on our store-bought stoneware. Then bake it at high temperature in a kiln. Most ceramic hobby stores will do the kiln-firing for you.

As kids get older, they produce more sophisticated designs. My daughter-in-sin’s kids made a really beautiful salad bowl for SDXB—anyone would be pleased to put it on the table for an informal guest meal.

A simple project along the same lines for grown-ups: You can paint and fire deco tiles. Greenware retailers sell blank tiles in various sizes, onto which you can apply designs from rustic to postmodern, depending on your tastes and skills. Those fancy, expensive tiles you buy in upscale flooring stores are made exactly the same way, although they may be fired harder. I would not use craft-shop tiles on a floor or kitchen countertop, but they work nicely as accent wall tiles, and a few large ones hung strategically on a stucco wall make striking outdoor décor.

frugal crafts