Making a Picture Frame from a China Plate

Years ago when my great niece was small, she colored a ceramic plate as a craft project, then her mother sent me the plate. Through all the years, I kept the plate. Now Katie has graduated high school and for her graduation, I broke the plate and made it into a picture frame. Actually, it was a lot easier than the thought of doing it.

This is the original plate she created, both the front side (much more colorful) and the backside (where she spelled her name).

Then I selected an old picture frame I had around the house (I think I picked it up at a garage sale from 50 cents).

Then, I wanted to paint the frame white, front and back but I did not have to be that careful on the front because I was going to cover it. On the backside, I used painter's tape around the edges, and gave it many coats so the white was nice and shiny.




Now comes the fun part -- smashing the plate. How I did it was I put the plate in a plastic bag then a paper bag and I went outside to the cement walk and threw it on the ground. I kept doing this, picking out the best pieces until I knew I had a good selection to choose from.

 Now, I put the selected pieces around the frame. This is my first attempt. I thought some pieces too big, so I took them back outside and smashed some more. (Of course, there are tools you can use to cut the ceramics, but I enjoyed smashing the plate to bits!)


After I had the pieces I wanted to surround the frame, I took a filing tool and filed the rough edges from the plate. (At right).

Then, it was time to glue the pieces onto the frame. I chose to only cover the front of the frame because it is a small frame. I used gorilla glue, but you could use any glue for the material you are using. I was using ceramic to wood.


I let this dry overnight to make sure all pieces were secure. The next morning I picked it up, turned it over and shook. I was good to go. No pieces fell from it.

Then, I got out the grout I selected. Since this is my first mosaic piece, I selected the simplest grout I could find. It is in a powder form and I mixed 1 part water to 4 parts grout powder.

I stirred it until it had a good consistency and started putting it all around the front of the frame and on the sides where the plate piece hit. This was messy but easy. I used an old paint brush for this project, so now I have a grout brush!

I followed the directions exactly, and it said to immediately wipe the excess grout from the piece. I did this a few times with a damp sponge. After I knew that I had it fairly clean, I took a paper towel and went over each piece to make sure the pieces were clean from grout.

I let it sit overnight. You probably would not have to, but I had the time.

I went to the drugstore to have a copy of the original plate made to put inside the picture frame. And today I put it in the mail for Katie to have a piece of her history. She is a Lacrosse player, so I hope she puts many great lacrosse pictures inside this frame.

Until tomorrow...have a great day...