A New Passion

Yes, it is true. I love all things crafty. As a matter of fact there are few crafty things that I will not attempt. Thus with the opportunity to teach an arts and crafts day camp as part of my day job I was able to introduce our youth to something I have not done before, pottery. Let me back up. The youth did not throw clay, nor do I. We decorate the preformed product. For them it was plates, bowls, or mugs (part of the group rate). When I went back a week later to pick up their finished products I was able to pick out my own to do.

Let me start at the beginning of my adventure. I travelled to Fayetteville, North Carolina to a place called "Just Claying Around." Once inside you notice tables with paint brushes, bowls of water, and a colorful plate full of numbers. The walls are lined with shelves that are loaded with various items begging for color and personality. The items range from small tiles to very large items, each with various prices. The price includes all the paint you can think to use as well as glazing and firing costs. The process is simple. You pick the item you want. The colorful plates are samples of all the paints they have. You pick your colors and paint lightest to darkest. Each time you paint you have to wait for it to dry. After about 20-30 minutes you paint over it again giving it three to four coats of paint to make sure it is solid. When you are done you pay for the item. Then it takes two to three days of drying before they dip it in a special glaze. Then it drys again before being placed in the kiln and being fired. I asked about things shattering and they said all of their products come from the same place to ensure the moisture content is even in everything they fire and very rarely do they have accidents in the kiln.

So about a week after painting (and let me say when you paint you are going on a vision because it does not look like you plan when you originally paint it) you get a call and go back to pick up your finished product. I actually started with two trivets, one for my mother and one for me. I found that having two projects to work on took the boredom out of drying. It so happened that I ran out of the paint colors I chose for my mother's trivet so my got done first. They wrapped up the other one and let me take it home to bring it back another time to finish.

For my trivet there were lots of choices and I was not quite sure what to do. I found a speckled off white for the background which ended up having a very colorful affect. Then I took a bright red and painted the edges and my initials on the trivet. I did not know when I painted it that the speckles would come through the red but it gives an neat and unexpected affect to my finished project. I picked up my finished project and took the opportunity to finish my mother's trivet as well as a tile that I hope to use in a tray. I will let you know how it turns out.