Clever Crafts: Floral Ceramic Cup

Welcome back to Clever Crafts! This series is all about thinking outside the box and making the most of what you have—pairing your Hero Arts products with creative (and maybe unexpected!) materials from around the house. Whether you're stretching your stash or looking for fresh ideas, we’re here to turn limitations into inspiration—one clever idea at a time.

Hi there, creatives! It’s Rosie and I am sharing a special ceramic project using my Hero Arts dies. In my day job, I work as a preschool coordinator for a community art center. In my work, I get to collaborate with lots of different artists and have access to so many different art disciplines including ceramics.

Recently one of my colleagues did a staff workshop and he created these cups for us to glaze. The indentions are his signature style. I admit, I had support from my colleagues for all the technical parts of this project. I told them my vision and how I wanted to execute and they said “it should work.”

Of course I wanted my two worlds to collide to create a masterpiece! I used the Small and Large Flower Layering dies from the Friendship Blooms collection to cut sticky backed vinyl flowers. I used a scrap of leftover light blue vinyl but these will just be stencils so the color doesn’t matter.

I wanted my flowers white, so I covered the entire ceramic cup with white Speedball underglaze and made sure to do two even coats. After that dried, I adhered the vinyl die cut flower stencils all over the cup.

Then I coated the cup with pink underglaze. I probably applied too much pink because you can see in the final piece that it seeped under the vinyl. After the pink dried, I used a craft pick to peel off the vinyl flowers. They came off much easier than I expected and the white underglaze was undamaged. I probably could have cleaned up the edges of those flowers at this point but, honestly I was just so excited everything was working the way I wanted I didn’t want to stop.

I used the universal craft tool, a cotton swab, to make yellow centers to my flowers. I did some with just one dot and others with a cluster of dots.

Then I took it back to work and fired it in our kilns. I was a little disappointed when it came out because it didn’t look much different from when I put it in. It was kinda dull and still matte. Come to find out, I needed a clear glaze! So two coats of clear glaze and back to the kiln. These were the longest two days of my crafty life! I had to wait a whole weekend and I have never been so eager to go back to work on a Monday morning!

I was so happy the cup survived and looks beautiful! I did notice some small “cracks” in the glaze but I was told that was because we fired in a low fire kiln and the clay expands or contracts and crackling is common.

What do you think? What other craft or art disciplines can we use our stamps and dies with? Since I have access and this was successful, I might try stamping a bold prink on a trivet. I wonder if it would work? There is only one way to find out! I can't wait to see how you use your stamps and dies outside the box.