Pottery painting is great fun to do with children and creates a lasting momento, whether it’s an ornament, a Christmas tree decoration or a gift for the grandparents. You can pick up sets very cheaply, at shops like The Works, or they often come attached to children’s magazines as the cover gift. These kind of sets always come with a few colours of paint, which is handy – especially when it’s to paint a particular character and you need specific colours you are less likely to have at home.
The one thing they don’t have however is a nice shiny glaze. You can buy topcoats to use at home, but the difference with a piece of painted pottery when it’s been properly glazed and fired is notable. Sophie and I recently did a pottery painting session and the pieces were transformed when we picked them up a few weeks later – the colours were so much brighter and the shiny finish looked great.
We did a session run by Kate Creative, based in Lingfield, but they came to a soft play venue nearer to where we live, called Bounce at the Barn. We paid a set fee then paid for whichever item we wanted to paint – various things were laid out on a table, from ornaments to money boxes and more. Sophie chose a troll and I picked out a Cinderella pumpkin carriage, which I decided to paint in Halloween colours with a witch instead of a princess riding inside.
We had access to a wide selection of paints, and sat at a table happily painting our pottery. We were advised to do two coats; my four-year-old daughter decided she had finished after one coat so I picked up where she had left off and was careful to go over her colours in the same way that she had done it (resisting the temptation to neaten it up!).
The pottery wasn’t cheap – I think I paid £7 for the troll and £19 for the Cinderella carriage but I’m hoping the latter will be a Halloween decoration I can bring out year after year. Also, the lid comes off, though I’m not quite sure what I would put in it, as you can’t easily get your hand in – maybe some wrapped mini chocolate bars for a Halloween treat!
When we had finished painting, we put our pottery on one side to dry and left my contact details; we had a message a couple of weeks later to go and pick it up (at the same place we’d done the painting luckily as Lingfield is a bit far). I was really pleased with the final product and so was Sophie – I think this is definitely something that we would do again!
Mini Moo Life 