How to Make a Custom Ceramic Photo Frame Margaret Kinkeade

When I was a kid, Polaroid instant cameras held a particular magic. In a time before digital cameras, let alone smartphones in every pocket, capturing a moment in time on film also involved lots of waiting: waiting until all the photos on the roll had been taken, time spent driving to the Fotomat to drop off your small black canister, and eagerly awaiting the call that your photos were ready for pickup. During the pandemic, I was gifted a Fujifilm Instax Square camera and, over the last five years or so, my drawer has filled with dozens of square instant photos capturing birthday celebrations, the silliness of my kids’ childhood, and beautiful everyday moments with my friends and family. As the stacks pile up, I realized that while arranging them in a photobook would be great, seeing these tactile souvenirs on the walls of my home would be better. 

Prep Materials 

To begin, make a 5-in. (12.7-cm) square template out of tar paper (1). Once the square is cut out, divide it into four equal squares with colored pencil or chalk. Then, draw a diagonal line from top middle to each side and from bottom middle to the same points on each side (2). This creates a diamond shape inside your drawn square; using scissors or a utility knife, cut out that diamond. I chose this 2½-in.(6.4-cm)-wide square void to match the opening of a Fujifilm Instax square photograph. 

Build the Frame 

Roll out a slab of clay ¼ in. (6.4 mm) thick and compress it with a rubber rib. The next steps work best when the slab has had a chance to stiffen slightly. Lay your template down onto your slab and cut around the template and, using either a 2½-in. (6.4-cm)-square cookie cutter or a knife, cut out the interior section (3). Cut four 1-in. (2.5 cm)-wide strips of clay at least 5½ in. (14 cm) long for the walls of the frame (4). You may need to trim the length of the strips a bit as you piece your frame together. 

After all of your pieces are cut and the strip lengths finalized, bevel the edges of the square and three sides (two short and one long) of each strip (5). Score all of your beveled edges, add a small amount of water using a paintbrush, and begin to attach your walls to your square slab (6). 

Once the walls are all secured, roll out pinky-width coils and score both the coils and the interior nooks of your frame. Squish the coil around the interior perimeter, ensuring that the coil also reinforces the corners where the strips meet. Smooth the joins with a rubber rib until the coil edges are blended (7). 

Next, take a small triangular loop tool (8), position the long edge of the tool parallel to the bottom slab, and carefully run it around the interior perimeter without carving out clay from the bottom slab (9). Carefully remove the ribbon of clay, and you are left with an interior valley carved into your coil. This is the ledge where your photo will sit (10). Depending on your clay’s shrinkage rate, this ledge may need to be deeper to fit the photo. 

While the softer clay in your coil-turned-ledge firms up, flip over your frame. Use a serrated rib to gently roughen up all the corners and edges to encourage better joints. Then, use a rubber rib to smooth and refine your exterior edges and faces of your frame (11). Tip: Use your fingers placed through the opening to support the underside of your frame face slab to minimize warping. 

I cut the interior frame opening using a square cookie cutter, which created a simple opening (12), but you can also embellish this opening with a bevel, stamped details, or even begin with a round, oval, or organic-shaped opening. If you’d like to add a bevel (see 15) or stamped details to the opening, now is the time to do that. 

Margaret Kinkeade is the editor of Ceramics Monthly and the associate editor of Pottery Making Illustrated. She maintains her practice in her home studio. To see more, visit www.margaretkinkeade.com.