A recent meeting saw a good number of our Bury St Edmunds members gathered at Claire’s House Pottery Studio, with the aim of artistically decorating some select items of pottery. Many of us have taken part in such sessions previously, but somehow the challenge to produce something approaching acceptable is just irresistible.
The process of choosing an item to decorate involved much discussion, deliberating, backtracking and last-minute changing of minds, but we all ended up with something, ranging from piggy banks to dainty plates. Then it was a question of either – for organised people – whipping out the carefully thought-through plan and a picture of what was to be aimed for, or – in many cases – simply winging it and taking a leap of faith.
It went fairly quiet for 50 minutes or so of total concentration, interspersed by an occasional gasp of surprised achievement or sigh of exasperation. After which, in general, everyone was fairly happy with their creations, and left them with Claire for a couple of weeks for glazing, firing etc.
The outcome upon collection, as can be seen in these beautiful(!) examples, was not bad at all.
From comments overheard, there could have been “more base paint applied”, a “finer brush used”, “patterns outlined” and maybe “a proper plan of what I wanted to do….”.
Next time then…