Paint Your Own Pottery

A few weeks ago, my hubbie and I ventured into unchartered territories.  Yes, we decided to wander into one of those paint your own pottery studios and give it a go.  Specifically, we used Third Coast Clay (which was fabulous, by the way), but there are tons of pottery studios around.

We wandered through the rows of unfinished pottery and decided on our pieces.  John painted an owl mug (which he has since given to me).  SCORE!!  And I chose an Easter platter, which ended up being more of a project than I initially imagined.  :)

Here's a look at our work in progress.  Notice how pastel the colors look now.  

And here are the finished pieces.  Once the pottery is fired and glazed, the pieces really come to life!

I am so happy with how these turned out, especially for a couple of novices!  I'd say from here on out, we can go ahead and consider ourselves professionals.  

For those who haven't painted pottery before, we did come  up with a few tips to pass along:

1.  Look for examples.  The studio we used had lots of completed works out as display pieces.  They gave us great ideas and good starting points.

2.  Go slow and don't get ahead of yourself.  It's tempting to start slapping paint on quickly, but try to imagine your finished piece and take your time making it special.

3.  Don't be afraid to use teeny tiny brushes for intricate areas.  In fact, you almost have to for really small areas that you want to paint.  Again, go slow, and sometimes holding your mouth just the right way also helps.

4.  It's ok to leave unpainted parts on your pottery.  Guess what?  They turn out white once your piece is fired and glazed.  :)

5.  Come back if you have to.  In the case of my platter, it was so intricate there was no way I could complete it in one sitting.  They wrapped it for me and let me take it home.  Then I came back and finished in one more visit.

Oh, and I'll throw in another tip for free.  Drink, if possible.  I'm not kidding.  We didn't know at the time, but the studio we visited allows you to bring a bottle of wine with you.  What fun!  I'm SURE that would have helped us along our way.