By Emma Barhydt
Painting pottery is an activity very close to my heart. I have fond memories of warm July days when we summered in Maine and my parents would take me to paint pottery as our afternoon activity after my tennis lessons were over, and I’d had enough of learning to ride my bike for the day.
Walking into the pottery shop was always a magical experience. The wall was covered in tiles with all of the different colors on it – to me it looked like the most beautiful rainbow I had ever seen. I thought they had every color known to man in paint. There were three whole walls of shelves and shelves of pure white pottery to choose from, just waiting for my creativity to bring it to life. I could pick whatever pottery I wanted to paint, my own colors, and wherever I wanted to sit all by myself. At five years old, picking things by myself was very important.
My mother and father would also pick their own paints and pottery as I meandered to the window with them close behind. I picked the usual childhood memorabilia; a unicorn (or four or five unicorns), a Curious George figurine, a little bear. But I also picked a few standouts: a butter dish painted with a perfect “art nouveau” grasp of color (all over the place and a lot of different colors), and a chips and dip dish whereupon I used every single stamp the fine establishment had to offer.
We still use many of the pieces we painted to this day. My mother still loves to serve guacamole and chips in the dish that I made; a utensil holder painted with a black lab that my father made still holds pens on my mother’s desk; the mug my mother made for my grandmother returned home to us when she passed away last summer; we even still use the art nouveau butter dish. Though these pieces may have a few chips in them, the memories of us all painting them together as well as how personal each item is makes them some of the most used and beloved things in our home.
More than fifteen years later, the time that I got to spend with my parents at that pottery shop is still warm in my heart. Long after we stopped going to the little town, long after the doors of the pottery shop closed, and long after I forgot its name, I still love the time I spent there, and feel that it was integral to the process of who I’ve become. But try as I might since then I have not found another place to paint pottery… until about a year ago.
You can imagine my surprise when my friend who lives in Darien asked me to go paint pottery with her! I swear I could feel my heart swelling from excitement – we went the very day she proposed the idea. Hands of Pottery in Darien is a paint-your-own-pottery studio and while that might seem like something just for kids, I assure you it is not. I have taken my friends, my boyfriend, and most notably my little brother there so we could paint pottery together.
Let me tell you, I cannot get enough of this place. Since discovering it I’ve painted three mugs, one utensil holder, a key bowl, and two dog bowls for my puppy Moose Track. That’s only since one year ago! My parents are so busy that they have not had the time to get in the car with us and go to Darien – how fortunate then that Hands on Pottery has to-go kits as well where you can pick a piece of pottery, four paints, and a couple of brushes to take home and paint on your own time, and when you’re done you can just drop them off to be fired.
Sitting around our dining room table painting pottery brought me more joy than I can properly express. My inner child was gleaming with happiness as I got to relive one of my favorite childhood memories with the wonderful addition of my little brother, who was not yet born when the pottery store in Maine closed its doors. Taking my brother to paint pottery with me and getting to share with him an activity that is so important to me genuinely creates some of the best moments of my whole life.
If you haven’t yet stopped by Hands on Pottery in Darien, I highly recommend it for any kind of spending time with someone. It’s perfect for a first date or a 203rd date, for spending time with your family or friends, or for just spending time with yourself. Spend the time indoors if it’s a rainy day or take the pottery with you on a picnic if it’s sunny. The opportunities for painting pottery are endless. I hope you can share painting pottery with your loved ones as I have with mine.
