The process...

Its been a dream of mine to paint something on ceramics for a while now (a few years actually) although I must admit I haven't tried too hard to find a place that has the raw ceramics, paint and kiln in one place. So I was super excited when I accidentally found a place like that here in Korea. 

A friend (the other native English speaker at my school) and I, went to go and give it a try yesterday. 

I'll talk you through the  planning process of my first attempt.

1. I wanted to make a teacup for my mom because I miss her and would love to sit on a couch with her and drink some tea.

2. I wanted it to be special, so I made a small list of things I wanted the cup to portray: she is the most loving, giving person I know, she is known for riding her bicycle around the small town she stays in, she loves tea and she loves people.

3. I had to take into account that my drawing capabilities are limited (I think I took art for a month when I was 15)

4. I looked around on the web to find some inspiration(I like to search on Google images). here is what I found that inspired me: 

Drawing of a watering can pouring water over children with sprouts coming out their heads

I strongly believe that you should NOT steal other people's art/craft ideas, but you can use it to inspire you and then give credit where credit is due.

Keep reading to see how I used it in my own way.

5.So the rest of the thought process went like this: I wanted to write something on the inside of the cup. The Afrikaans (my mom is Afrikaans) that I found gives good descriptions of general moms but I want it to apply specifically to mine. So I had to write something myself (move to shot of me with fear in my eyes). 

So I drew my own pictures (trying to depict friends in my mom's life) and wrote my sentence and off I went to the pottery shop.

The shop :)

 1. Choose your ceramics.

The lady on the left was our instructor - she spoke about 2 words of English and although she was very nice she looked VERY doubtful about what we were trying to do in our first attempt. 

The other person is Jefa my co-cup creator.

2. Scrub and rinse your pottery and get an explanation in charades that you shouldn't hold on to the handle because you will break it off.

3. Draw on the cups in pencil

Here are mine

4. Pretend to sip from the cup (oh no, I'm holding on to the handle...)

5. Paint the cup - NOTE: there is no more handle. YES, I did break it off during the drawing process...(but thankfully if you are too lazy to redraw, it can be stuck back on)

Top view.

So to come back to what I did.

The sentence I wrote on the inside of the cup was:

"my ma ry haar fiets deur Ceres se strate, sy het 'n teepot in haar hand."

which translates to: 

"my Mom rides her bicycle through the streets of Ceres, she has a teapot in her hand."

Then note the hand pouring the "tea" (love) from the teapot. 

The "tea" is poured out to the people in the saucer - and every person (who are supposed to symbolize some of her close friends) have cups on their heads to receive the "tea".

OK its corny I realize that - BUT  I like it :)

The last step is to put the cup and saucer in the kiln and bake it. 

This is currently happening so you will have to check in again next week for the TA-DA moment and the glossy finished product.

Oh and if you are wondering why I haven't shown you any good sewing in a while - I have been busy with a sewing project as a gift and I PROMISE I will show you the moment I have given it to the person :)

^.^