Get Your Hands Dirty with Pottery Lessons!
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When it comes to thinking of fun date ideas Ashley and I have been looking in unconventional places. We stumbled across our pottery class idea through an advertisement for our local art centre. When Ashley suggested the idea, I immediately pictured the movie Ghost. While our date wasn’t quite as romantic, it was certainly as memorable.
Let me start by saying that our date was more like a middle school art class than a romantic film, but that doesn’t mean it wasn’t a great date night.
We signed up for an introductory class that targeted couples – check out your local arts centre to see if they offer any similar classes. Upon arriving we were immediately informed that we would not be able to use the pottery wheels – all images of Demi Moore and Patrick Swayze were erased – however, it didn’t stop us from getting our hands dirty. We were given the choice of making either a plate, a mug, or a Christmas tree and after a brief explanation of how to approach each project we were free to start creating our masterpieces from a slab of wet pottery clay.
Ashley and I decided that we would make mugs and being the Potterheads that we are, (and without even realizing it) both decided to etch sayings from the Harry Potter books into our pottery creations. Ashley went with ‘Make Love, Not Horcruxes’ and I chose ‘Keep Calm and Trust Snape’. Cheesey? Absolutely! But we were both in tears laughing at our own geekiness and really isn’t that the point?
Working with the pottery clay was a lot more difficult than I initially thought. The clay is quite soft and malleable, and very difficult to completely smooth out. Ashley and I spent a good portion of our time etching our letters into the mug, so much so that when we went to fold the clay around the make the outside of the mug, parts of the clay had dried up and had started to crack! Then the panic set in and rushing to finish our projects we both ended up covered in clay by the end of the class.
After putting our mugs together, we got to choose a ‘slip’ colour to paint our mugs before they were set aside to dry for the kiln. We were then left to clean up our mess (and believe me, we made a good one) before heading home. Neither of us could believe how quickly the two and a half hours went by. This truly was a fun date idea!
Pro Tips:
- Perfectionists need not apply. Working with pottery clay is hard! As beginners we were caught off guard and had to accept that our mugs would be a little misshapen and wobbly.
- Don’t waste time. The longer you work with the clay, the more it dries out. As it dries, it cracks and isn’t as easy to work with.
Would you ever try a pottery class? What would you make?
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From Ashley:
One of the many meany reasons why I love Adam is that not only does he let me drag him to things like pottery classes, but we also spend the entire time coming up with, and laughing about, Harry Potter quotes!
I had a great time on this date! Yes, it was cheesey. And at times it could get frustrating when my design wasn't working out the way I wanted it to. I had to learn to just let it go and have fun (a good life lesson in general) - who needs a perfectly round mug anyways?!
I can't wait to drink our morning tea from our handmade Harry Potter mugs and be reminded about all the fun we had making them!
Sounds like a lot of fun. I would have never thought of doing this with my husband, and yes we have seen the movie ghost! But reading your date actually makes it sound like we will really enjoy it. I like that you can leave pro tips at the end – lol, that’s awesome! I’m going to go look for a class right now!
Thanks Bellaisa!
I’ll admit that as usual Ashley was gung-ho and I was a little hesitant but this was a really fun night. Like I said in the pro-tips, as long as you expect to be terrible at working with the pottery and just have fun with it, you’ll have a great time.