Since Yaya loves doing artwork so much (just like a certain Pak Yope of hers), we found a place nearby, Paintbrush Pottery, where you can choose something ceramic (a plate, figurine, etc.), paint it, and they would fire it up and glaze it for you. It was a nice Saturday afternoon surprise activity for Yaya. She wasted no time in choosing an owl plate to paint and an angry bird figurine for Adik.
[[image:2013_paintpot01.jpg:Painting the owl plate:center:0]]
However, Adik was not overly interested in all the painting.
[[image:2013_paintpot02.jpg:Adik plays with Papa’s phone:center:0]]
It was a bit of a challenge in the beginning. Yaya is used to just painting willy-nilly, but with pottery, you have to think about it in advance, plan it and then paint it. Meaning, you need to paint all the light colors first and gradually get to the dark colors. Also, each color needed to be painted on in three layers in order for it to come out bright after it is glazed. So after some explaining and choosing of colors and strategizing, Yaya was happily painting away. Adik, though, got sleepy so in the end Vin took him in the car and he took a nice nap. So we put Adik’s angry bird figurine away for another day, and I waited with Yaya while she carefully painted her owl plate. It did get a bit boring just sitting and watching her (and trying not to be a helicopter mum – it is her work after all), I chose a small square plate to just doodle around with while Yaya works on her masterpiece.
Finally Yaya was done! But I was not quite done with my plate, so Yaya helped by painting in the sun for me.
[[image:2013_paintpot04.jpg:I painted the sun for you, Mama!:center:0]]
Here are the painted plates:
[[image:2013_paintpot03.jpg:Whoo-whooo!:center:0]]
[[image:2013_paintpot05.jpg:My flower:center:0]]
Yes, I know. My flower is something any child could have done with their eyes closed, but I wasn’t planning on painting anything to begin with, and I am not the artistic one in the family. So I went with what I knew I could safely execute. A week later, we went back to Paintbrush Pottery to pick up the fired, glazed and finished product!
[[image:2013_paintpot08.jpg:Lovely shiny owl!:center:0]]
[[image:2013_paintpot09.jpg:Flower plate:center:0]]
Yaya eats her bread-toast on the new plates and missed her owl plate terribly when we went on our work-related road trip. We look forward to going back there from time to time and making more memories (and servingware, I hope!).
