What we really, really enjoyed after the first lockdown in June 2020, was our fourth visit at Anette Breu’s Keramikatelier. If you’re searching for a great made-with-love gift for someone or a relaxing and alternative art project, you should definitely try this!
My first visit at Anette’s pottery studio was in November 2018. My beloved childhood friend invited me to spend a girls day with her on the occasion of my engagement on October 2nd. She really knows what I love!!!
You step in and note an inconspicuous sound of jazz music and the aromatic smell of coffee. On some of the table groups people are already working intensely on their projects. The whole room is enframed by shelfs high to the ceiling, full of blank pottery – plates, mugs, pitchers, bowls, but also little decor stuff like napkin rings, candle holders and little figurines are waiting for being painted. No sooner you’ve had time to see everything, Anette’s warm voice welcomes you and shows you the wardrope, the bathroom and the table group reserved exclusively for you and your company for the next few hours. She gives a little introduction of the materials and techniques, let you see some examples and soon you will find youself equipped with a potter’s wheel and a cup of frehsly brewed coffee right back on your work place. Rule no. 1 is: Wash your hands before touching any blank from the shelfs (the blanks have a special coating which reacts with any skin oils on your hands; that would make the colours harder to stick on the surface). Then – it is the most difficult part – you have to choose your favourite piece from the shelfs to start with. I think I spent 30 minutes just imagining which one I would miss most in our home :)! After having made your selection, it comes to rule no. 2 when choosing the colours: Let Anette know what colours you’d like to use before you grab them from the colour shelf. She knows best how much of the colour you would need. To avoid waste, she fills them into little cups, refillable at any time. That leads us directly to rule no. 3: Never ever use the same brush, finger or whatever for different colours!!! They have to stay un-mixed to guarantee a perfect result at the burning procedure later. And important: Try to paint in layers! More layers of each colour you put on, more saturated the result colour would be! Anette recommends at least three layers of the same colour to put on. And now you start! For all those ones who feel overextended by the task of hands-free painting, Anette has a big (big!) folder with lots of print motives to create nice serigraphies or to use them as template to draw your individual motive. Then, she has a huuuuuge collection of different stamps and other cool stuff to treat the pottery surface with. I promiss, you will not notice how fast time is running when you’re concentrated on your painting – it’s incredible and so fun!
Thomas and I spent nearly two hours for our newest attainments: I broke our old salt bin, so he created a new one. Then, we decided to have an individual toilet brush holder in pop art style (the motive is freehand painted but I’ve searched for some inspiration in Anette’s BIG folder ;)) …
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