Paint Your Own Pottery

I've always been intrigued by paint your own pottery places. They seem like such fun, whimsical places where creative possibilities are endless. After finding a local studio, I decided it was time to finally try it out.

The only problem, when I am confronted with a completely blank slate, I almost start to panic. I get lost in the possibilities and can't seem to pinpoint a direction I want to follow. I realize, this is ridiculous. This should be a fun experience.

I finally decided I would do Grace's hand print on a decorative plate. Easy enough. Then came deciding on colors (ugh, another decision). My 'go to' colors tend to be white and red so that's what I selected. With paintbrush in hand, Grace begin to paint the plate.

I helped her add her chubby little hand print to the center of the plate and passed it along to be fired. We waited a week and anxiously went to retrieve our treasure. Though, I should have been excited about our creation, I couldn't get the image of Wilson from Cast Away out of my head. Do you see what I mean.

Lesson learned, probably not a good decision to do either a hand print or fingerprints in red paint. So, I decided to give it to a grandma. Grandmas have to love this sort of personalized gift, right? I was right, she loved it!

Disappointed my masterpiece didn't quite turn out as I had hoped, I decided to give it another try. I selected a square tile, with the intention of adding some felt to the back and using it as a trivet when finished. I still wanted to incorporate Grace in some way so, I painted a tree trunk and had Grace dip her fingertip in varying colors of green to make the leaves. Quick and simple.

This one, I'm keeping!