Paws around the Potteries - Painting a Plate

Ay up, everyone!  It's Hanley Bear here, trying out one of the things that Stoke-on-Trent is famous for - decorating pottery.  

One day just before Christmas, Grizzly and I went to the Emma Bridgewater Pottery to paint a special plate for a great-nephew of Grizzly's, with his name and birthday on it.  It is in Hanley - "Me" town - right beside the Caldon Canal.

Because we were going to be busy for at least an hour and maybe even longer, I said to Grizzly that we needed cake to help us concentrate.  The scones looked good, but in the end we decided to go for the millionnaire's shortbread - or "Million Bears" shortbread as I think it ought to be called.

Then it was time to go to the decorating studio.  I read out the instructions to Grizzly, then went to see what other things can be painted instead of plain plates, because he has done these before and I thought he should do something new.

I wondered if Grizzly's great nephew would prefer a mug or a teapot, or even a chicken for storing eggs, but Grizzly said "no", he wanted to paint a birthday plate, as he has done for other little human cub relatives.

Grizzly started writing his great-nephew's name and birthday on the unglazed plate with an ordinary pencil, as the lines made with one of those disappear when it is fired.

Grizzly has very neat handwriting but cannot paint letters and words completely freehand, so likes to have them marked out to fill in with the coloured glazes later.  

I went exploring again to get some ideas for patterns to decorate the plate.  I hadn't managed to persuade Grizzly to paint it all in red and white with footballs, and to start with I could only find Christmas things - but then I found some bears!

I gathered up some bear sponges and carried them all back to Grizzly, who had almost finished painting the lettering.  

"Look, Grizzly!" I said.  "We could make some bear-illiant patterns in the middle with these little bear sponges!"

Grizzly agreed, and soon we had sponged on lots of little bears.  I used a pencil that didn't disappear when fired to give some of them little black ears, like mine, and to mark on their eyes and noses.  I would like to show you the whole plate, but Sonning says we shouldn't show Grizzly's great-nephew's name, and I suppose he's right about that.

I was going out with Polar to her work Christmas dinner after that and, as that meant she wouldn't be cooking us an evening meal, suggested to Grizzly that we went back to the cafe so he could have a turkey bap, which came with cranberry sauce in a tiny mug that would be ideal for a small bear's beer mug!

Then it was time to go to Polar's Christmas dinner, where I got to see Aunty Tina and give her lots of hugs for Christmas, and ate a bear-illiant chocolate brownie!  What a terrific day out in "Me Town"!