How to Create a Personalised Floral Pen Pot Using Porcelain Brush Pens

Looking for a fun and creative DIY craft project?

In this tutorial, I’ll show you how to create a beautiful floral personalised pen pot using Edding Porcelain Brush Pens. Whether you’re into calligraphy, want to personalise your desk decor, or just love experimenting with new art supplies, this is such a lovely project to try.

If you’d prefer to follow along visually, you can watch the full step-by-step tutorial here:

👉 Watch on YouTube

What You’ll Need

Edding porcelain brush pens in multiple colour sets arranged for a DIY ceramic painting project

Edding porcelain brush pens

Here’s everything you’ll need for this project:

A Quick Look at the Pens

Close-up of porcelain brush pen tip showing firm flexible nib for controlled painting on ceramic surfaces

Close-up of porcelain brush pen tip

Before we dive into the tutorial, I wanted to have a quick chat about the pens.

I was sent four different packs, each with six colours. There are warm tones, cool tones, primary colours, and a more muted set. A few colours do overlap between packs, like black, red, and brown.

The packaging is cardboard, which is great because it can be recycled. The pens themselves have the instructions printed on them, which is really handy because I will definitely forget those otherwise.

The nib is quite chunky and not super flexible. That might sound like a downside, but actually it’s really helpful when working on smooth surfaces like ceramic or glass. If the nib was too flexible, it would likely slip and slide around more. This gives you much more control.

Testing the Pens: Swatches & Blending

Colour swatches of porcelain paint pens on ceramic surface showing opacity and pigment before baking

Colour swatches of porcelain paint pens on ceramic surface

Before starting the final design, I did a swatch test on a ceramic coaster.

I wanted to see what the colours looked like before baking and after baking, as I was really curious if they would change.

Quite a lot of the colours are really opaque, which is lovely. The lighter colours aren’t as opaque, but that’s to be expected. I actually quite like the gradient effect that creates.

The black is a really nice, strong black too, which isn’t always the case with paint pens.

Test of layered and blended porcelain paint pen colours on ceramic showing texture and colour mixing effects

Test of layered and blended porcelain paint pen colours on ceramic

I also tested blending and layering.

I managed to blend some colours slightly, like yellow into orange and pink into red. It’s not a smooth blend, but I actually really like the texture it creates.

If you don’t want colours to bleed into each other, you do need to let each one dry before adding another on top.

After baking, the colours stayed really true, which is great because it means what you see is what you get.

Before You Start

Plain white ceramic pen pot ready for hand lettering and floral decoration

Blank Pen Pot Before Design

Make sure your surface is thoroughly clean and free from dust or grease before you start.

The pens should be left to dry for around 15 minutes before baking, and then baked in a preheated oven at 160°C for 25 minutes. After that, leave it in the oven to cool down.

One really helpful thing is that if you make a mistake, you can wipe it off before it dries.

Step-by-Step: Floral Calligraphy Pen Pot

1. Add Your Calligraphy

Adding black calligraphy lettering to ceramic pen pot using porcelain brush pen on curved surface

Adding black calligraphy lettering

Start by writing your name in calligraphy using a black pen.

Any downward stroke should be thick and any upward stroke should be thin.

Because the surface is smooth and curved, it can feel a bit tricky, so take your time. If you need to, reposition the pen pot as you go. And remember, you can wipe it off and start again if needed.

2. Create the Rose Base

Painting loose pink circular shapes on ceramic to form base of rose flowers using brush pen

Painting pink rose flowers

We’re going to start with roses as they’re the easiest.

Create rough circular shapes and fill them in using a scribble motion. Keep the edges wobbly and uneven so they look more like petals.

They won’t look like much at first, but they really come to life later.

3. Add Five-Petal Flowers

Adding textured five petal purple flowers to ceramic pen pot design using brush pen strokes

Adding purple flowers

Next, create five-petal flowers.

The petals don’t need to be perfect. Use the tip of the brush to create little waves and texture. This gives a really nice painted effect.

Leave a gap in the middle so you can add the centre later.

4. Add Blue Flowers

Creating small blue layered flowers with teardrop shaped petals on ceramic surface

Creating small blue layered flowers

These flowers have more petals and are a bit more uniform.

Use a teardrop shape for each petal and work in a circular motion. These are great for filling slightly larger gaps.

5. Fill Gaps with Yellow Flowers

Painting small yellow five petal flowers to fill gaps in floral ceramic design

Painting small yellow five petal flowers to fill gaps

These are smaller five-petal flowers that help fill in the gaps.

Just apply a little pressure with the nib for each petal. They don’t need to be perfect, and you can make them slightly bigger if needed.

6. Add Detail & Texture

Drawing spiral lines inside pink roses to create petal detail and depth on ceramic pen pot

Adding Rose Detail

This is where everything comes to life.

For the roses, use the tip of the pen to draw wobbly spiral lines from the centre outwards.

Adding contrasting coloured centres and fine details to hand-painted ceramic flowers

Adding centres and texture to flowers

Add centres to the flowers using contrasting colours and dotting techniques.

You can also add extra lines and texture to petals to give more depth and detail.

7. Add Leaves & Final Details

Painting green leaves and stems around floral design on ceramic pen pot using brush pen

Painting green leaves and stems around the floral design

Add stems and leaves using a green pen.

Use teardrop shapes for leaves and let them overlap slightly with the flowers to make everything feel connected.

If you want to take it further, you can outline petals or add extra colour layers to give a more illustrative look.

Baking Your Design

Once you’re happy:

  • Leave to dry for 15 minutes

  • Bake at 160°C for 25 minutes

  • Turn the oven off and let it cool inside

Final Result

Completed personalised floral ceramic pen pot after baking with vibrant colours and detailed design

Finished Pen Pot After Baking

I love how this turned out. The layering and detail creates such a lovely illustrative style, and it pairs so nicely with the simple black calligraphy.

These pens were actually really easy to use. They dry quickly, don’t smell, and are much more convenient than traditional porcelain paints.

Final Thoughts

If you wanted to keep this more simple, you could just focus on one flower type. I’d definitely recommend the roses as they’re the easiest to create.

This is such a lovely project for:

  • Personalised gifts

  • Desk decor

  • Practising calligraphy on different surfaces

Let’s Stay Connected

If you try this tutorial, I’d love to see what you create! Tag me on Insta - @blinklettering

You can also find me here:

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