PYOP (Paint Your Own Pottery) Part 4

My friend Angie was in town this week and she is also crafty so we spent an afternoon at The Pottery Stop. I finished two pieces that came out pretty darn cute, if I do say so myself! Angie had never tried PYOP before and she had a great time and may be hooked on it too :) And her piece came out amazing!

Angie painted this lovely bowl (as part of a vertical spoon rest) with a Tuscan countryside scene.

 

I just love the koi on the inside of the bowl, what a beautiful touch! Angie has really meticulous attention to detail which paid off here, especially since the bowl is actually quite small (about 4 inches in diameter). It looks awesome.

 

This time I thought to take "before" photos of my pieces...partly to show the difference, and partly to remember what paint colors I used and how they looked before they were fired. I tend to use blues that are too dark and hide the black outlines and don't want to make that mistake on my next one.

 

Here's my three-section tray, with a ladybug, bird, and dragonfly. Before:

 

 

And after:

The ladybug was my favorite section on this one once it was fired. See what I mean about the overly dark blue sky in the other sections?

 

I also decided to paint a cute little design on the back.

 

After I finished this piece, I had some extra time while waiting for Angie to paint her tiny trees, etc. So I started a new tray (wavy sushi plate) with one of my favorite little scenes that I've painted in watercolor and other media before...whaley!

My little whale scene before:

 

 

And after being fired:

 

 

I love how bright all the colors turned out! And I did a little bit of a dotted texture detail in the coral, which came out better than expected. I added a silly little chicken legs box signature design on the back for fun:

 

 

We really had a great, relaxing day painting our pottery! What a nice way to spend the day with a friend :) And then picking up our pottery pieces was like a surprise present all over again, to see how they turned out!