Goodbye..........

It’s been 23 years and a few million pieces of pottery spread around the world. The Painting Pottery Café continues to provide an oasis for creative fun. And now seems like the right time to pass on the apron of ownership to Fern, who has been our manager for a number of years.

Owning this lovely little business in the heart of Brighton has been an absolute pleasure.  I would like to take the opportunity to thank all customers and staff, past and present, who have helped make the Pottery Café the joy that it has become – and a special thank you to Mark, my partner, who has been our behind the scenes go to for just about everything.

And I can’t finish without saying a big thank you to neighbours Shella and Lyndsey from the brilliant Brighton Ice Rink, John from John Edwards Hair, and Steve and family from LeoFrames, who have all been around since the beginning and have provided endless support over the years. 

Activities are back on in May!

We are delighted and very excited to be able to welcome our customers back for painting and throwing from May 17th. All of our previous safety precautions will stay in place for the foreseeable future. This means restrictions on numbers and on the times we can offer. Please bear with us. However we will endeavour to ensure you have a fun, relaxing and creative experience.

Happy Easter!

Happy Easter Everyone! We are looking forward to opening again next month. We will post opening times on the website in the coming days. We are taking bookings from May 17th on wards and confirming these at the beginning of May. Have a great weekend!

International Women's Day 2021 - Choose to Challenge!

A few years ago we celebrated some of our favourite inspirational women by painting their portraits on plates for International Women’s Day. We subsequently added Greta Thunberg as an strong and inspirational woman.

This years theme is “Choose to Challenge” which all of our inspirational women have done in their own sphere. However the tsunami of effects from war, famine, dictatorships, capitalism and now Covid-19 reveals that more than ever we need to stand up for the rights of women, who disproportionaly experience the impact of these events. We must find our voice and not give up until there is equality between all people.

Our hands are held high to the call to challenge these inequalities and to help eliminate the injustices of our modern world. Let’s call out the hypocrisies of our societies together.

Merry Christmas & a Very Happy New Year!

A big thank you to all of our customers for supporting us this year. We hope to be back with you in the not too distant future. In the meantime have a wonderful Xmas.

University of Brighton Graduate and MA Shows 2020

This year has forced many students to adapt when presenting their final pieces to gain their BA or MA, and none more so than those working in practical fields such as ceramics. 

For example, our wonderfully talented Holly (who you may have spotted on telly last summer) finished her Craft MA at the University of Brighton, and rather than show it in the usual physical format, she has had to adapt and display it online. The same goes for Sydney, who used to work with us but took time out to focus on her studies. 

Luckily for all of us, this means we can admire the beautiful works of these students safely, without even having to get out of our jammies! 

Check out our lovely Sydney’s super interesting combination of Japanese and British crafts:

And we have to say, we’re extremely proud of Holly who has absolutely pulled it out the bag with her explorations of portraiture. We absolutely love her experimentations with form, which you can see the process of below:

The colours and shapes are so complementary, and make us want to try reimagining and playing with the ways in which we see everyday things and ourselves, too. We’re excited to see what Holly does next, and which amazing artistic ideas she’ll be pursuing in the future! 

Have you had a chance to check out the show? Let us know who your faves were on our Facebook or Instagram!

A Love Letter to Paint-at-Home Kits!

While we love having you lovely people in the cafe to paint, we also know that many of you feel more comfortable in the safety of your own home. That’s why we’ve been so happy to offer you the therapeutic experience of painting in your very own creative environment!

---

Whether you’re a new family wanting to try out your first baby footprints, or you’re desperate to see what different textures and shapes you and your little ones can play around with (splattering? potato stamps? different sponges? finger painting?) we’ve got you covered.

You might even be able to get the little ones to help with the washing up!

---

Perhaps you and your partner have a special occasion coming up and want to create something together to celebrate, or even paint portraits of each other on matching mugs, bowls, or plates!

---

It’s a great group activity for small parties, too! Just imagine the scene: a few bottles of bubbly, some chips and dips (just make sure you don’t touch pottery with greasy fingers), and laughs galore as you all take your time creating your masterpieces while the creative juices are flowing!

One of our favourite pieces out of the paint-at-home-kits is this lovely heart plate, which Mary bought. She had friends and family sign it as part of a wedding celebration gift for the happy couple. What a wonderful idea!

---

Painting is also a great activity for solo fliers. So many people tell us how they love coming in on their own to lose themselves in the experience for hours at a time - and what could be better than doing that but in your jammies!?

---

And with tons of colour options and items to choose from, and our brand new Inspiration page, there’s bound to be something to whet your painting appetite.

So what are you waiting for? Book now to nab your kit and see where your creativity in comfort takes you!

SUPER SALE Celebrating July Opening!

Think …Birthday….Anniversary…Christmas. Choose from a fantastic selection of hand-painted pottery at super sale prices to celebrate our re-opening this July. There is a special gift for everyone. Prices start at just £5 to £20 for Teapots.

Check out the Collection Opening Times in July on our Home Page to pick up. Email us for more information. We can also organise post for you. Here is a glimpse of some of the items available and see them in our shop windows.

View fullsize

View fullsize

View fullsize

View fullsize

View fullsize

View fullsize

View fullsize

View fullsize

View fullsize

View fullsize

Corona Virus Update

PAINT POTTERY AT HOME - NOT AVAILABLE WHILE WE ARE CLOSED

 In these troubled times, it becomes more and more important to take time to care for yourself, including your mental health. Allow yourself to take time out, unwind, and be creative. If you don’t have anything at home that can facilitate this, don’t worry – we’ve got you covered.  

From the 18th March, we are chuffed to be offering a takeaway package. Here’s how it works:

·     Choose your favourite item to paint, and take 10% off the price 

·     Pay £5 to cover the glazing and firing

·     Choose up to 6 colours to take home, and pay a deposit of £5 per colour, which will be refunded on return

·     Send a trusted friend or family member to come in and collect it all

·     Arrange a date for that person to come and drop off your painted masterpiece and the paints. This is when we’ll return your deposit in full

·     Arrange another date a week later for someone to collect your finished creation, or come and collect it yourself later on

·     Eat your noodles, drink your tea, or eat your toast while admiring your new hand painted pottery!  

If you would rather not have to worry about deposits and collections, we are also selling paint by numbers kits for £15, and canvas art kits for £12. Please email us at help@paintingpotterycafe.co.ukfor more information about these. 

---

COLLECTIONS - NOT AVAILABLE WHILE WE ARE CLOSED

If you’re wary of coming to collect your pottery because of contact time, we understand. We are more than happy for you to call when you’re on your way over to give us a heads up. This way, we can find your pottery for you ahead of time, and hand it over much quicker, outside the shop.

Alternatively, you can call and pay an additional fee for postage over the phone, and we’ll pop it in the post for you ASAP!

---

PRECAUTIONARY MEASURES IN PLACE

For those of you who still would like to come and paint in our little oasis, please feel welcome! Please take note that in these fast-changing times, we have introduced a few different ways of doing things, both for us and for you:

1.    We ask that all customers wash their hands on entry. We have removed all towels from the shop, and have installed paper towel dispensers next to every sink.

2.    Unless you are in a group, we will sit you at least a meter away from other customers. 

3.    All our staff are wearing rubber gloves, apart from when preparing food.

4.    After every booking, we wipe down the table, paints, and paintbrushes with a 70% alcohol spray. We are also going over all regularly-touched surfaces with this at least every couple of hours.

5.    All staff are washing their hands regularly, and we encourage customers to do the same.

6.    We have tissues upstairs and downstairs, and a separate bin for these which we empty regularly. If we are concerned about a customer coughing or sneezing too much, we will ask them politely to return to paint their pottery another day. 

The Corona Virus

We have taken this virus seriously and implemented strict cleaning routines for the past few weeks in order to protect both our customers and staff. Studio assistants have been wearing gloves. We ask that all customers wash their hands when they enter the café.

 We are a small close team of ten and as of Sunday 15th March will be working in two teams in order that we do not cross over.  In this way we hope that if one team is unable to work the other team can take over. 

 We will also be limiting numbers in the café – trying to apply some distancing between people - unless you are coming as a group.  We would ask that you book before arriving in order that we can make appropriate plans for the day.

 We value you, our customers, our talented team and our lovely pottery café.  Keep safe and healthy – we hope to stay open so that we can all continue to enjoy this creative space.

 Thank you

Gill x

Inspiration: Under the Sea

As you may have noticed from our giant mural, cupboard doors, and various pieces of pottery dotted around the shop, we love whales! 🐋 We’re not biased, though, we do love other sea animals too. 🐠🐙🐬 And mermaids. And pirate ships. In truth, we’re very loyal to our Brighton beach-lovin’ bones! 🌊🐚 That’s why we’ve put together a small gallery of some of our favourite ocean-themed pieces for your perusal.

Inspiration: Florals for Spring

In the words of Miranda Priestly from The Devil Wears Prada… “Groundbreaking”.

But that’s just us getting our sass on. 💅

Really, we love seeing your love for plants and flowers! 🌸🌿 Here’s our weekly round up of inspiration for you, this time themed around the glory of Mother Nature.

Psst, if you really like those lil bees towards the end, be sure to check out our birds and bees inspiration post from earlier this year! 🐝

Inspiration: Out of This World

Our planet is beautiful, but sometimes you just need to go bigger with your inspiration! Space-themed pottery always looks fabulous, so why not be brave and head to infinity, and beyond! 👽 Here are a few pieces to put some fuel in your creative lil spaceship.

Inspiration: Patterns Patterns Everywhere

Humans love patterns: they allow us to predict and expect what is coming, which our brains really appreciate. Feast your eyes on these repetitive beauties, in every array of colours! One even looks like it’s been inspired by our favourite emoji, the Greek Amphora! 🏺

Inspiration: Go Wild

We started this inspiration series with our fave pets, so we thought we’d step out into the wild with this post and have a look at which animals have inspired previous painters. 🐅 🐘 🐍 Whether it’s a safari, a jungle, or a good ol’ forest, animals from any environment always look fantastic on pottery.

If you’re looking for something a bit more soggy, be sure to check out the ‘Under the Sea’ post coming soon in this Inspiration series! 🐳

How It Works: Part II

In the first part of this series, we discussed our top tips for choosing what to paint, and gave you a few tricks on how to get the most out of your creative time here.

Now, we’re going to move onto what we here at The Painting Pottery Cafe do with your pottery once you leave it with us. Let’s follow the life of this lovely bee mug, painted by someone equally lovely from the Sussex Wildlife Trust, who had a team building party with us recently.

---

Put it in the Queue

First, your pottery will be placed in an area in our kiln cave where it’ll enter a queue. We carefully stack the items in order of when they were painted, spacing them so that nobody’s pottery touches anybody else’s.

Glazing

When we are ready to load a kiln, it’s time to glaze some stuff!

Glaze comes in a liquid form. It’s a tiny bit thicker than the consistency of milk, and it dries very quickly into a powdery coat. In this series of images, you can see Nathalie, one of our many talented glazers. First, she spritzes a mug with a mist of water, to help the glaze stick to the pottery.

Next, holding the mug carefully, she dunks the pottery into the glaze, and pulls it out. She shakes any excess glaze off, and then carefully rests it on a stilt. At this point, the handle has not been glazed yet.

Below, you can see a tiny little stand that the mug is resting on. This is called a stilt and it’s very important in the firing process. We don’t want any glaze between an item and the shelves of the kiln, otherwise the glaze will melt between the two, and stick the item to the shelf forever - disaster!

Many items can have the glaze wiped off their bottom with a sheet of sponge, but some need to be stilted because if we wipe their bottom we’d wipe off your lovely painting!

We repeat this process with enough items to fill a kiln, making sure nothing is touching. By the time we’ve glazed everything once, the first items are dry and ready to be dunked again, to cover the bit of pottery that wasn’t glazed before, e.g. the handle.

By the time we’ve double-dunked everything, the first items are dry all over again. The glaze has dried as a powdery layer on top of the paint, giving everything a white coating. Below is a before and after of glazing, so you can see the difference at this point. At this point, the items are all ready to be rubbed down. This is another vital part of the glazing process.

Rubbing Down

If you look very carefully in the top left photo below, you’ll see tiny bubbles of glaze and a line where the second layer of glaze crosses over near the handle. These all need to be rubbed away very gently. Because this creates a lot of glaze dust, you may occasionally see our glazers in these lil personalised masks. The bottom right photo shows the mug after it’s been rubbed down - not a line or bubble in sight!

Once everything is rubbed down, it’s time to start loading the kiln (I know, we haven’t even mentioned the kiln yet!) We have two kilns: one big, and one smaller (although still pretty big).

Loading the Kiln

We load the kilns very carefully. Each item must be spaced a nice distance away from other items so they don’t meld together during firing. Nothing can touch the edge of the kiln, either. Once we have filled one layer of items all the same height, we put props in and place a kiln shelf on top. We load this one with items of a similar height, and repeat the process all the way to the top.

Loading a kiln takes focus, time, and care. Each piece of pottery is treated with the utmost respect - after all, you’ve spent hours painting it! Loading both kilns can take up to 4 hours.

Firing a Kiln

The kilns both fire your pottery up to 1100°C - which is as hot as the lava out of a volcano! They take about 8 hours to heat up, and then roughly 10 hours to cool down again. During this time, the white powdery glaze sitting on top of the paint melts into a kind of liquid glassy substance which then hardens as the kiln cools.

Thanks to The National Geographic for this beautiful photo

By the time we get into work the next morning, the kilns are usually about 300°C, and we cool them down very slowly until they’re safe to unload, which is when they’re about 100°C. Because this is still the temperature at which water boils, we make sure to wear these heat-resistant gloves when unloading pottery.

And just like that, the second part of our ‘How it Works’ series is complete! Tune in next time to see how the bee mug looks after its been fired, and to find out how we know exactly which pottery to give you when you come to collect.

Staff Picks: February Events

January has been about 8 years long, and Christmas feels like it was a century ago! We might be a bit dramatic, but we’re certainly excited to welcome in a new month at last. Here’s a quick roundup of events we might even leave our sofa-nests for! ❄️

Vegan Festival

Not only will there be lots of yummy treats for you to try, many of which are brand new, there’ll be a schedule of educational talks and inspirational cookery demonstrations running throughout the day. Head to the Hilton Hotel on 22nd Feb between 10.30-4.30. Tickets are £5, available on the door or online, or you can get VIP tickets for £15 for a bag of goodies on arrival.

Comedy Nights at Komedia

Wriggle have a great offer on at the mo: you can book some late night Saturday comedy for just £8 at the prestigious Krater Comedy Club! These nights are always packed with laughs, and they give you regular intervals to top up any dwindling beverages.

One of our crew went recently and really enjoyed her time there - she even sat at the front and didn’t get roasted, so don’t be shy!

Queer the Pier

From non-normative bodies and marginalised groups to the rise of drag in Sussex, the curators of this exhibition have explored a whole host of queer topics. Pop in to the Spotlight Gallery from 22nd Feb to join them in celebrating the lives of the writers, artists, performers, activists and ordinary people who have made Brighton & Hove so fabulous.

Reigning Women at The Old Market

We’re really excited that TOM are repeating this season, throughout which they celebrate women in the arts. Proceeds go to the Brighton Women’s Centre - last year they raised over £1000! It looks to be a fantastic and exciting series showing off the very best of both well established and up and coming artists from all walks of life, and within all media. Check out their events to see everything they’ve got on throughout February.

It's that time of the year again! Reigning Women is back with a bang, and this year's line up is looking AMAZING! Whether it's live music, stand-up comedy, theatre, or a mixture of all 3, we've got some incredible shows from some kick-ass women ready and waiting for you.

Valentine’s Crafty and Arty Special at The Hope and Ruin

Of course, we do have to mention the ol’ lovers’ day, but don’t worry - this event has a fun twist.

If you don’t already know, The Hope and Ruin run an art club on Tuesdays where they provide art materials for free. This is a spin off of that, with a lovey-dovey theme - except you’re there to love yourself!

On the 13th Feb, they’re encouraging you to “come love yourself today before you have to pretend to love someone else tomorrow...” There’ll be beer, a ridiculous playlist, and loads of giggles for sure. Sign us up!