Ceramic Painting

I recently had the opportunity to revisit a craft that I last did 20 years ago: ceramic painting.

This was through a work function held at Paint & Create but I had previously been to Paint the Earth. You can go as an individual, with a few friends or organise a party.

There were 8 in our group and we had booked for 2 hours. We were able to bring a catered picnic with us too as long as we took everything away with us. A big thank you to Margot for organising this!

The format is simple:

1. Choose the ceramic piece that you want to decorate from a wide selection of plates, platters, bowls, cups and plenty more. The price on the piece covers everything to the final result.
2. Decide on your design. You can draw your own or choose from a range of patterns that you can trace from. If you make a mistake you can simply use an eraser. The pencil (or carbon paper) designs will burn off when the piece is fired so you don’t have to worry about them.
3. Choose your paint colours. This is slightly trickier because the final colour is different from what you see as you paint. So you have to choose by looking at samples that show you what it will eventually look like.
4. Apply the paint. Depending on what you are painting, there are brushes of all sizes, sponges and even fine nibs for the paint bottles or special applicators for painting the rims. Because it is hand painted, you will see your brush strokes in the final piece – so don’t be too much of a perfectionist in your expectations.
5. Leave the piece to be glazed and fired in the kiln. It will be ready to pick up in a few days.

And here are some of the things I made 20 years ago:

For the bigger or more complex pieces you will need a longer time to complete them.