A Relief Society crafting trip

 I may have mentioned before that I did ceramics in my school days and at times I miss it. However, making things with clay once upon a time and painting glazes onto premade items is not the same thing.

So this activity was new to me. Some of the sisters had done this before and of the experience one said "I'm not into crafts or crafty but this was a lot of fun".

Unlike other craft things with Relief Society which are held at the Church and led by a sister who "does" that craft, this was a commercial venture.

Premises in the next town over, we car shared to all get there, minimum of ten people for a booking.

Once there met by the friendly owner operator and shelves of premade pottery items we could then decorate. Prices depended on what you wanted to decorate and there was quite a range to choose from.

I chose a mid sized mug. I wanted something that I could use and which would not just be ornamental.

The process was simple, use the brushes provided and paint the various colours glazes on your chosen piece. You might know this already, the colour the glazes are pre firing does not match how they will look after firing. To help us with that each table had a tile with all of the colours and their names on it to help us pick.

Now I have issues with over complicating things, you may have noticed if you have visited before. So when it comes to something like this I find it hard to strike a balance between something that meets my need for that but can be completed in the time frame. The same thing makes me bad at Pictionary as I want to be all artistically complicated when I should just keep it simple.

I made some small preparations (given I did not know what shape I might have to work on as that varies) and via You Tube Videos made note of  the Korean lettering for Forestella , Soopbyeol, and hijo de la luna and courtesy of google translates, for my name. I was not sure what I would do with them, I also sketched out the Forestella FS logo, the version without leaves. Oh and I took along a set of very thin brushes, I did not know how fine the ones provided might be. I heartily dislike blunt pencils and trying to paint with too thick a brush and if I did end up trying to do lettering well a fine brush would be useful.

So little mug chosen I sat with a Disney style princess and a squirrel, well those were the choices of my table companions. Also chosen by the group were sloths, popular I think three of them, a snail, a unicorn, a campervan.

I am quite proud of myself as I did manage not to overly fuss. I decided on a silver/lavender moon on a dark blue background, with the FS logo in the middle in the same glaze and then the name of the group and of the song in black. How well that will show up on the dark blue should be interesting. Added my name and soopbyeol onto the handle. And I was done without having to rush at all, I resisted the inclination to try and add a figure sitting on the moon, just as well my crescent moons were challenge enough on the night.

This is my mug standing on the tile showing the anticipated finished shade. That very dark blue at the bottom is how my light blue should look.

The FS turned out quite well considering I was working freehand and from a sketch.

It takes a couple of weeks before they are collectable, I would guess depending on how long it takes for the shop to have enough pieces to make a firing financially viable. So we wait to see how things turn out. Will my lettering vanish, or be there if you look but not quite as prominent? Will my silvery stars show, how will the mixed silver and lavender come together on the moon and the FS? Guess I have to wait and see.

So whilst we wait, a version of the song, there are several by the group on You Tube as it is unsurprisingly a popular inclusion in their concerts.