It’s the school holidays here at the moment, so I’ve been on the look out for creative activities that Amelie and I can enjoy together. I’m sure there’s lots of you out there who also need to find endless entertainment for little ones! A new pottery painting studio has opened nearby so we popped over to find out more.

It’s the sort of pottery where you go along and the studio has lots of bisque fired blanks to choose from. Paints and equipment were provided. We used sponges to apply base colours and then other tools to add patterns on top.

The paints are intermixable and you just dilute with water for paler colours. We used sponge dabbers, foam and sponge stamps, little twisted wire shapes, brushes and other tools to make marks, shapes and patterns.

A week later and the pottery has been glazed and fired and is ready to collect. Amelie and I painted a plate each and she also did a mug as a gift, but I really don’t want to give it away!

We were really pleased with our plates too!

Pottery painting was great fun and I’m sure we’ll be back to do more. Amelie is nearly four and managed the techniques well with supervision. If you’re planning a similar activity this holiday my tip would be to go with some ideas in mind for colours and designs. Being faced with a blank plate is worse than the first blank page of a sketchbook! I reverted to my old favourite poppy motif. Next time I might pop my sketchbook in my bag so I have more reference ideas to work from.

Bye for now,

Laura
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