Pretty dots and a history lesson.

For christmas, I made my mom this set of plates and a pitcher. My mom has collected dishes for as long as I can remember. Nothing ever too fancy, mostly just the stuff that we saw at a sale or picked up at a flea market. Her newest find was a wonderful set of wheat dishes that you could actually collect stamps for in the 1950's at grocery stores and retailers all across the country. You would then redeem those stamps for a slew of household products. S&H green stamps was a huge company from the thirties into the early eighties. In fact, the S&H green stamps catalog was the most published catalog in the United States and the company sold THREE TIMES as many stamps as the US Postal Service. In my great grandmothers estate is a entire place setting of these wheat dishes, and when my mother inherits them, I will inherit her flea market find. Something inside me is giddy at the prospect of owning a piece of history that was S&H green stamps. So.

I made my mother dishes using Porcelaine 150, which is a food safe porcelain paint. When it is properly cured in your oven, it is even dishwasher safe! It was a pretty meticulous, time consuming project. But, I LOVE IT! So much so, that I decided to make my co-workers personalized mugs for their christmas presents. They were a big hit! The paint for this project is a little pricey, I suggest buying just the basic colors and mixing them to get your desired shades. Aside from the paint, which is water clean-up thank heavens, this project is pretty inexpensive. You can find cheap dishes at thrift stores or on clearance racks and dot paint away! You can get all the instructions from Martha here.