The Painting Pottery Cafe

One of the main benefits of working for VisitBrighton is that we get the opportunity to do things we might not otherwise think of doing.

Last night a few of us visited The Painting Pottery Cafe on North Road and to be honest before we went I was starting to wonder why I was going. I am not the most creative person and not particularly gifted when it comes to art & design, well unless you're impressed by stick men! But I thought I would go along and see what it's all about.

The Cafe is split over two floors, downstairs you can hire for private parties such as celebrations or team building sessions. This is also where they host workshops and where the potters wheels and kiln can be found. Upstairs is the cafe area where smaller groups or drop-ins can sit and get to work. We loved the fact that The Painting Pottery Cafe are working with Capers to provide drinks and snacks for their guests, which is a great example of local, independent businesses working together to benefit them and their customers.

But enough of that what about the actual painting... Well it's not all about pots and plates, there are a wide variety of items available to get arty with including coasters, teapots, mugs, plates and figurines. So if like myself you feel slightly daunted by the prospect of filling a large white plate with a beautiful picture or design you can opt for a model instead. So being a bit of a rock fan I was instantly drawn to the skull, which you can see below along with a picture of me pretending to know what I'm doing:


So once you've chosen your canvas and had a flick through some of the books & illustrations for inspiration it's time to actually pick up your brush and get stuck in. Once I'd got over my initial cautiousness and decided to just give it a go, I really enjoyed it. I'm not going to claim I've produced a masterpiece but then I don't think that's really the point. We all had a really enjoyable evening chatting and there was something very relaxing about doing the painting so that the time just seemed to fly by. To be honest most evenings I'll either watch the TV or sit on my computer so it was a welcome break to do something creative for a change.

Not only does painting pottery make for a fun and quirky night out it's also great for those on a budget. You just pay £5 studio cover so this includes the materials, the glazing etc and then you pay for whichever piece you choose to paint and as prices start from £3.50 you can have a fun night out for less than a tenner.

So here is the skull after I'd decided it was time to put my brush down:
This was how I left it last night, the skull will now be glazed and fired in the kiln ready for me to collect the finished article next week. So I will do another post then to show you how it turned out and I'll hopefully include pictures of some of my colleagues pieces as well as they were far more artistic than my effort!

Charlotte