Drilling Ceramics - it can be done!

Well, I bought this amazing fishy pendant from Marti (Marti's etsy shop) because who really could pass this guy up? Not me!

 

 

I thought that I could easily drill a hole into this to make a pendant - no big deal, right? Wrong! I asked Marti if there was an easy way to quickly drill into ceramics and she said she had no idea how to do it and didn't really recommend it. Uh oh! As my husband says - "You and your bright ideas!"

 

Then I had another idea. I decided to glue a bail on the top using E6000. Turns out E6000 doesn't stick to ceramics. Grrrr!

 

So, I posted a question on my favorite Facebook group page, Creative Bead Chat, to ask all the other designers if they knew what to do. I got little response except that a two-part epoxy could be used to adhere a bail. I didn't have any two-part epoxy and didn't feel like ordering, paying for shipping, waiting for it to arrive and then using some highly toxic stuff in my house.

 

I did some research & watched a youtube video on drilling ceramic tile and went on a hunt for a diamond tipped drill bit. No store in town had one small enough. So I asked the my wise and knowledgable father what to do (this happens on a regular basis). He suggested a carbide massonary bit. And that my friends, is how I drilled this ceramic fish pendant. I bought the smallest drill bit the hardware store had and here's what happened...

 

 
Got out my mini-drill that my father-in-law gave us.
 

 

I put the pendant in water to keep it cool while drilling. It takes a while to drill through ceramic so you don't want your piece to heat up and crack. I didn't use a lot of pressure either, just let the drill do the work. I started on low and switched to high once I had a good start on the hole. After about 5 minutes...

 

Here it is! I nice hole for stringing this guy up. I'm not sure yet if I'm going to use wire, leather, cotton cording or what with him, but I'm excited that he is now usable!