Tealight Houses

Apparently, small ceramic houses for tealights are all the rage in the middle classes this Christmas and, not to miss out, Hay and I decided to attend one of Hay's sister's ceramic art classes in her studio in the garden and make some.

Here are the ones available in the shops.

Now Hay has been attending the classes for several months on a Saturday morning, but I never availed myself of the facility, despite having received a free session as a birthday present.

I made one quickly, whereas Hay took more time for a somewhat refined house. She even went on to make a 2nd. 

Here are our attempts thus far.

The smaller one with the Roman tiled effect roof is mine and the other two are Hay's. She's leaving the roof off her 2nd one but, to me, it looks like a WWII Coventry, Stalingrad or Dresden model or, to be more contemporary, a Gaza model. 

I want to make a 2nd, but first want to make a paper template that minimises the use of clay - a bit like a fold-out. I may even transfer the paper template to mild steel to create a bit of a production line.

Above is a rough sketch of a template, complete with bowed walls and a bowed roof; however, if you search on t'internet you can find loads of them. Here's one, although it doesn't eliminate wastage by concatenating the sides that match.

The template above requires the joints to be cut at a 45 degree angle, which makes sense for a clean, mitred corner. It has a font and back, two roof panels and one side panel. The missing side panel is where you insert the tea light, although I would have done that at the back - better for the light too.

We still need to fire the ones we made, glaze them and then re-fire them, but they should be ready for Christmas.

Mine will be crackle glaze cream, with a terracotta roof and a trace of white snow on the roof. Very twee. I think, but can't be certain, that Hay will do the Coventry model in smoke and blackened brick.