STAFF REVIEW - THE POTTERY PAINTING CAFE BRIGHTON

Bissy, Owen and I visited the Brighton Painting Pottery Cafe, in the Northern Laines. The Cafe was hard not to miss; the exterior was painted a light pink, which contrasted its dark green door and windows. As I entered the cozy cafe, I was met with vibrant shades of green and purple-painted walls, as well as shelves stacked with hundreds of pottery, with all different shapes, colours and sizes - these really inspired us and proved that the sky was the limit in terms of our creativity. One of the lovely staff members brought us over to a section that displayed all the different pottery shapes available, and we were free to pick whatever one we liked, and to take our time. There was so much variety! From large animal shaped pots, to quaint tea cups and plates, there was truly something for everyone to find joy in painting. I picked a small tea cup, Bissy picked a bowl and Owen picked a hedgehog-shaped mug!

I was impressed by the way the attentiveness of the staff continued throughout the experience. Very soon after we went to sit downstairs, a colleague came over and talked us through the process to paint our chosen items, beginning with how to sand down the items, how to clean them and then of course the most important part - the painting itself! It was very comforting that they began by asking if we had been to the venue before, showing how the staff are good at tailoring their explanations to guests of a range of ability and experience levels. Bissy had been before and had roughly explained the process on our way to the venue, but they were more than happy to go over it all again for Owen and I. A few minutes later, another colleague even came over to try and explain it to us all over again, which I think was the perfect demonstration of their rigorous customer service standards - for which we were very grateful! Visits to our table to make sure we were okay remained frequent for the entire duration of our experience, which included checking on our pottery but also to offer us teas and coffees too. Although the pottery is clearly the main attraction of this experience, the additional hospitality was greatly welcomed.

Once we all had our pottery pieces picked out and had been given a brief talk, it was time to paint! To start with, we all had to sand down and clean our pottery pieces to create a smoother surface to paint on. Following this, we prepared our colour pots in front of us, filling them with the paints we were going to use. There were 22 different coloured paints to choose from, alongside sparkles and other tools to perfect our pieces. I started by delicately painting some pink and red hearts both onto my teacup and saucer, so that they matched. As well as this, I painted a flower and pink border to keep up the pink theme! Bissy chose to paint a unique ombre blue pattern onto her bowl, with a small flower in the middle to add some style!. When mixing some blue colours together in the pot, it got a bit messy! As for Owen, he painted a range of different objects and patterns onto his hedgehog mug. To start with, he carefully drew an outline of a cement mixer, before painting it with the appropriate colours. Alongside this, he painted a flower to add some elegance, and finished off by painting the hedgehog that was already carved into the mug.

When we had finished with our masterpieces, we left them ready to be glazed and fired, and were told to collect them in 7-10 days. We can't wait to see the finished products!

Overall, our Pottery Painting experience was fun and relaxing, and we were looked after very well!