Painted pottery blends art with practicality, much like gilded bike helmets, surrealist chairs, and embroidered parking tickets. Gussy up your ceramics with today’s Groupon: for $12, you get $25 worth of paint-your-own pottery, glass creations, and more at The Clay Canvas in Oxford, Mississippi.
The Clay Canvas stokes its kiln for potters of all experience levels, hosting a bevy of do-it-yourself craft activities in its studio. With the proper utensils and a little help from the friendly employees, brush wielders can metamorphosize a piece of merely functional ware into a custom-painted rarity. Improve imbibing experiences by bedazzling a coffee mug ($14–$20), or convert a table into an art gallery for ceiling spiders by setting it with original plates ($15+). Piggy banks will appreciate any efforts to make them more attractive to people with spare change ($15+), and sushi plates with chopsticks can be monogrammed for designated sashimi-hounds ($28).
Paint-shy patrons can opt for brewing a one-of-a-kind hot glass creation—using their own bottles or The Clay Canvas’s full line of System 96 glass, artists melt and reshape their way to a glimmering knickknack that serves as a thoughtful gift or time-bending amulet. Customers can also select a traditional Japanese raku piece, glaze it, and send it off to be fired in the studio’s sizzling flame pit. If shoving your hands into moist clay sounds appealing, schedule a hand-building session and turn a wet, amorphous lump into a shape that keeps soup and tea securely in place.
The Clay Canvas
At The Clay Canvas's child-friendly contemporary ceramics studio, customers of all crafting levels dabble in DIY activities ranging from pottery painting to hand-building moist-clay pieces. Children's summer camps, workshops, and other classes help youngsters take steps toward skilled painting or overcoming a fear of sitting at a potter's wheel that may be surrounded by friendly ghosts. The Clay Canvas also engages with the local artist community by selling finished pieces at the studio.