Ceramic plant pots

I've got another craft class to tell you about today.  I've been so busy with life that I've done very little crafting outside of my classes, so you'll get a few craft class posts for the next few weeks I'm afraid!  I'm missing sewing and crocheting and embroidering so much that I need to carve out some time for it.

Back in January I took a class with Nat of Upsydaisy Craft at The Malt Cross, Nottingham which is a lovely old music-hall turned pub which runs cultural events and craft classes in their basement.

The class was to make a couple of plant pots from scratch.  Form them from clay, embellish and decorate and glaze.  Nat was a great teacher, she showed us the basics and then let us run wild.  You didn't hear any "you can't do that" from her, which I love in a teacher.  Above is a first attempt that I wedged and started again.  I formed it round a cardboard tube covered in brown paper, but didn't like the frilly edge I made.

I liked this attempt better.  A simple rolled pot with some cut out bunnies on it.  They were made with punches, they're not hand cut!

I made two and both featured a  deliberate join.  Some of Nat's examples had this feature and I really liked it.

I used letter punches and cut out the letters to make a cheesy pun on this one.  My parents always thought Aloe Vera was funny and pronounced it "'Ello Vera", so I thought I'd run with it!  I intend to get an Aloe Vera plant (which is turning out to be a lot harder than I imagined) and put this in my bathroom.

For some reason I've included a random photo of a piece of clay rolled out and cut to shape!

This shows the back join on the bunny pot.  I love that thick edge.  When I took this photo I was cleaning up the pot using a paint brush and a small amount of water.

Then we glazed.  There were loads of gorgeous colours, but I stuck to bluey-greens to match my bathroom.

I left the words blank.  I didn't really have time to do the detailed work that painting them would have required, but I'm not keen on the finished look so I may end up filling them in with ceramic paints (I think I have some blue) or with a sharpie... not sure if that'll work.

Seems like I went mad taking photos!

And here are my finished, fired pots!  The 'Ello Vera one is very patchy.  Despite it being a full-day class, there was so much to do that I didn't get a chance to do a second coat of glaze on it.

My painting skills are definitely very lacking!

The inside of this one was painted with a confetti glaze.  A clear glaze with little pieces of glass in it, just like the frit I used in the lampwork class!

I have no idea what colour I painted this one!  It looks like white but I really don't remember doing that.  The clay dries white, but unglazed it is porous, so I'm sure I glazed it (I thought in blue!), maybe not!

Stay tuned for more craft class reports!