Pottery Party

This year for my birthday, I opted for an interactive gathering: a pottery class! We gathered at Play with Clay in El Cerrito and dug in, pottery wheels and all. It was so much fun, I’m already plotting my next return to the wheel.

I went with full traditional paper invites and everything, designed by Brianne of Brown Fox Calligraphy. Flowers were supplied by Melanie of Hawthorn Flower Studio.

I also provided aprons for all my friends and personalized them with calligraphy myself as favors to each of the attendees.

Hooray! Such a great birthday crew.

After our pottery class, the pieces still had to be dried, glazed, and fired, so we left them with the staff, who took care of all of that for us. We got to pick it all up one month later, which, of course, called for a follow-up pottery party! We gathered tea and ice cream and plenty of things to test out our new cups, mugs, and pots.

Finally, a roundup of our finished pieces!

If you’re looking for a great activity to try, I highly recommend pottery! Even with zero experience on the wheel, all our creations came out so wonderfully.

My two big tips are: 1. Definitely wear an apron and clothes you don’t mind getting dirty. We all had clay all over our outfits (except Dan who miraculously escaped unscathed). 2. Expect your pieces to shrink by a significant margin! Our pieces all came out much smaller than expected. Ask your instructors if you’re wondering how your particular clay will react, but I’d suggest just making everything oversized by at least 25%.

Photography by Anna Wu and Jasmine Curtis.

Anna Wu is a wedding and portrait photographer based in San Francisco but often jetsetting and eating her way around the world. Follow her @annawuphoto on facebook or instagram for more of her daily adventures.