[crafts] Paint your own pottery

I recently went to Tip Top Pottery in White River Jct. to paint pottery with my sister and a couple of her friends. I don't know why I waited so long to try this- it was so much fun! Thursday night is "Ladies Night" so the studio fee is $5. Then it's just the price of whatever you choose to make. They have lots of 'regular' stuff to paint (mugs, bowls, plates, etc) but also FUN stuff- piggy banks, decorative figures, a few seasonal items (pumpkins, skull mugs). I picked a desktop organizer.

It was pretty busy there but we had someone explain the different glazes, how to paint, what to do, what not to do, etc. My major mistake was putting 5 different colors onto a plate... and not writing down the number of each color. So when I went back for more, I was looking through the bottles like "Uh... Shit." Lucky, I was able to show one of the employees my plate and she could tell what colors I chose.

So, after painting three layers of glaze in different colors over my organizer and decorating it with black details, it looked like:

So pastel. But everyone's projects look pastel before firing them. Here's how it came out:

I like it! There's one spot missing some color. You can see brush strokes here and there. Some of the blackwork is kind of sloppy. (I was kind of rushing to finish toward the end.) But overall, VERY fun and VERY rewarding to do.

I set the organizer on my craft desk:

Yay, so functional and made-by-me. I've got to go to Tip Top once a month. I think I'm addicted.