Blue bird bowl

Today my small ones and I went to a ceramics studio with my mama. It's a few years since I've painted any pottery and I'd forgotten quite how much I love it.

You might remember that not so long ago Laurence King sent me the Bowie Style Print & Pattern 2 book for review (full review here). It's full of fantastic designs which I suddenly realised today would translate really well onto pot. Painting isn't my natural comfort zone (due to there not being a needle and fabric involved) and I knew I'd enjoy the limited time more if I didn't have to rely on my own brain to dream up something lovely in such a situation (last time I went I worked from part of a design found in a Heather Bailey fabric) - the only dilemma was narrowing down which design to work from - there is so much inspiration in this book and the women who ran the studio quickly pounced on it and felt the same way too (and so will be ordering their own copy). The design I eventually settled on features some scandi style birds created by Kelly Hyatt whose designs typically adorn greeting cards under the Lagom banner. You can find more of his impressive work here. The walls of the studio were full of previously painted plates - one of which was the most amazing hand-painted ceramic version of a Klimt painting complete with golden glaze - breathtaking.

I love that the painting process is full of suspense. The colours here look chalky and pale, but once they're glazed they'll become vibrant and rich and the shadows of felt tip which I used to trace out the design will disappear in the heat of the oven.

My little boy has more confidence when it comes to such things and painted a design of his own creation (you can see from the sample dots how some of his colours will look once glazed), while my daughter started off also taking inspiration from Kelly, but eventually dispensed with that and painted over it afresh to create this lovely dish design:

My mama painted a beautiful bowl of soft blue sky dotted with fluffy white clouds. Unfortunately, I forgot to take a close up of it as I was too busy photographing her in the act of actual painting...I'm unsure whether she'd like those pictures to appear on my blog though (indeed there have been requests for photographs of my father following the last post - there was a brief debate as to whether he looks like the Major from Fawlty Towers which I am keen to put a stop to - as I remember, the Major was a rather doddery old creature who would have taken at least twice the amount of time to thread a chain of paper clips as my own nimble-fingered father).

I am very excited about getting my bowl back. In the last few months I've started eating breakfast - something that's never really been a part of my life - and am enjoying a substantial helping of fat-free natural yoghurt with a sprinkling of finely milled oat bran on top (which my husband tells me is horrifically sour and oddly textured, but which I love). However, the perfectly-sized bowl for eating such a concoction hasn't been a part of my kitchen...but this little blue bird bowl will be just right.

Florence x