Thursday, January 5, 2012

A Painted Platter

My very first job was working at a Paint Your Own Pottery studio in my hometown. My major responsibilities were working at kids' birthday parties, painting stuff for the store windows, and chatting with my friends when they'd stop by. It was pretty much my dream job and if it hadn't paid $6.25 an hour, I'd probably still be doing it today.

Imagine my delight when, home in NY a few weeks ago, my friend Annalily wanted to spend an afternoon together, painting pottery. We went back to the shop of my teenage years and caught up while painting dishes.

I started with a white platter and sketched basic vines on it. The pencil marks burn off in the kiln, so using them as a guide, I painted on green vines & leaves and some flowers…


…and added more flowers and some polka dots…


…and left at the studio for a week while they fired it in the kiln. Here's the finished product:



I love it! My new town has it's own PYOP studio that I need to check out soon. I know some people think it's hokey, but I think it's a great way to spend an afternoon and handpainted pottery always makes great gifts. This particular platter will be flying with me to Vienna to bring to a dear old friend. Give PYOP a shot and stay homey!

4 comments:

  1. So pretty! Reminds me of summer, can't wait to see actual flowers again. ;-)

    Thanks for linking up to Refresh Your Nest Friday!

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    Replies
    1. Thanks, Carrie! No kidding... it's shaping up to be a long winter :)

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  2. oh that is just fabulous. perfect. I would love to go to a paint your own pottery shop----I am going to have to check and see if there is something like that in my area!!! thanks for sharing!
    Jaime from crafty scrappy happy

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