Painted Pottery

So the winter weather has finally won and is kicking my butt with an awful cold, but luckily I had done a little crafting right before the cold set in and was just waiting (impatiently) for the finished product. My friends and I love to get together every once in a while for some pottery painting at our local spot, Time To Clay. It's a great way to get creative, messy(and not have to clean up after yourself!) and end up with a useful piece of pottery that matches your personality. Be warned, these places are like time warps - projects done here take hours longer than you would ever expect!

Supplies:

Your local Paint-your-own-pottery shop

Unfinished piece of pottery

Pencil

Ruler

Ceramic paint

Paintbrushes

TONS of time!

I usually go for the littler pieces of pottery, but decided this time to take on a large bowl - good for mixing up some baked goods or a vibrant salad! I took out these stencils and didn't use them, but they inspired me to go with a chevron pattern on the outside.

I got to work marking lines where the chevrons would be. I almost always jump into a project with a trial and error attitude so I really had no clue how this would turn out.

All the horizontal lines are marked! I was going to do vertical lines also in hopes of making a grid to base the pattern off of, but those didn't turn out nearly as well. 

So... I decided to just wing it! I used the horizontal lines to marks where the peaks and troughs of the chevrons would be and then eyeballed it from there. 

I got very caught up in drawing and painting that I don't have a whole lot of process photos, but it is pretty straightforward. I painted one chevron line an accent color and then alternated the rest with black and just left the others the base color. 

Then I poured in a bright red-orange color for the inside of the bowl. Now it's ready for firing!

I finally went and picked up the finished piece and can't wait to make something with it! The picture doesn't do that accent line justice - it is beige with speckles of that same red-orange, black, blue and maroon. 

Mmm, I'm pretty sure anything that comes out of that bowl will just HAVE to taste delicious!

--Heather