Just last month I was lucky enough to attend a Yelp event at recently opened The Craft Pottery in Glasgow.
The Craft Pottery is a paint-your-own-pottery studio, with a huge array of bare pottery pieces to choose from. You simply pick your pieces, paint them, and then pick them up a week later once they have been glazed and fired. They have private rooms available to book – perfect for hen parties, kids parties, baby showers….
Left – The Craft Pottery on West Campbell Street
Right – Owner Jessica, manning the front desk
Owner Jessica moved to Glasgow from Brooklyn, NY, just over 2 years ago to study for a Masters degree in children’s literature. I asked her what inspired her to open The Craft Pottery…
My mom asked me what my favourite job ever was and could I do something with that? It was working at a pottery painting studio called Baked in Brooklyn while I was interning at a PR firm (to help me make rent). This is when I realised Glasgow could do with a pottery painting studio – and so I decided to open my own! Like the one I had worked at, I decided I wanted to make my studio adult-focused as well as be comfortable for children to enjoy. And so I took the idea of the BYOB policy and late opening hours from Baked (with my boss’ blessing of course!), found a suitable spot in city centre. My boyfriend and I renovated the whole space ourselves over 4 months which was really fulfilling (and exhausting), and we opened our doors on August 1st.
This was one of the loveliest Yelp events I have been to. A group of Yelpers took over the studio for the evening, sharing wine, nibbles, and banter over paint and pottery.
Happy Pottery-Painting Yelpers!
There is a huge array of pottery pieces to choose between, from teapots to dog bowls… I decided to paint a feature plate, and had been thinking of painting some sort of family tree picture on the plate. I had been googling for inspiration when I stumbled across a Christmas family plate, and I knew that this was the design I would follow.
Left – my inspiration
Middle – sketch of my design
Right – the finished plate before glazing and firing
I throughly enjoyed painting my plate, and spent a good 2 hours painting 3 coats on to the plate whilst enjoying the company of my fellow Yelping friends. It was lovely to do some crafting in adult company, as these days any craft I do tends to be with Little Squirrel (attention span isn’t the best!). I left my plate in the hands of owner Jessica and her colleagues and patiently waited her phone call to say my plate was ready to collect!
Just one week later I got the call and excitedly made my way back to The Craft Pottery to pick up my work of art. Am so pleased with how this turned out, and I can’t wait to use it over the festive period!
My Christmas Family Plate
If you fancy some paint-your-own pottery fun, then I couldn’t recommend The Craft Pottery highly enough. The private rooms are great for parties and the BYOB policy makes for a fun night out, or celebration of a special event, with friends. There is plenty of Christmas stock in at the minute if you fancy some festive painting fun, and if you fancy creating your very own pottery piece they are running hand-building pottery classes on the first and third Sunday of every month between 6 and 8pm.
Jessica has done a great job in creating a really lovely studio, and a super space for kids and adults alike to get their craft on!
Hungry Squirrels 