Who painted it?

Are you intimidated by colourful underglazes? Some Tricity Potters are happy to make pots in classes and then glaze them but worry about using underglazes. With that in mind we arranged a fun game of cooperation for last Wednesday’s meeting. Members were asked to bring along a bone dry or bisque-fired pot, any underglazes they have and a brush or two. We had lots of extra pots, and I brought along my many jars of Raiders’underglazes.

Inspired by the old ‘Exquisite Corpse’ parlour game we split up into groups of four, and three. By giving each person a number, one through four, and then telling all the number ones to work together, twos at another table and so on, I split up usual groups and had people working alongside unexpected colleagues. Then I asked that each pot be passed to the person on one’s left. We painted for ten minutes, then passed the pot to the next. The last to work on it was its owner who could make final touches.

It was really good to hear the conversations in the room that evening, as folks advised each other or discussed the placing of their 1/4 or 1/3 of the designs. Here are photos of the collaborative session.

Doesn’t that look like fun? Feel free to copy the idea for a worktime with your pottery friends. Now the owner of each pot will get it bisque-fired and clear-glazed. I hope the pots will reappear at our next meeting so that we can all see the results of several artists having worked on one piece.

Below are the 19 items painted that evening. They’ll be even bolder when glazed. There are fascinating combinations of ideas and techniques, some based on the shape of the pot and others not. But the best part of the evening was the companionable time spent working alongside name-tagged fellow members.