You do craft @ Robert Gordon Pottery
I will admit at the beginning of this post that I was not familiar with genius that is Robert Gordon Pottery. Back in March my dear friend Melissa tagged me in one of their posts on Facebook. Mother’s Day Special “$10 Paint Your Own dinner plate”. It wasn’t that it was a Robert Gordon Plate, it wasn’t even that I could knock over a Mother’s Day gift - it was that I could paint a plate. Sure I think their target market was children… but hey, they also welcome the young at heart.
For all the adults that have fond memories and yearnings to relive the glory days of the 1980s Plaster Fun House, this is where you need to go - especially if you want some serious brand recognition with your crafting. The last time I painted plaster was in 2011 with Joe, at Lakes Entrance Plaster Painting & Souvenirs.
But if you are looking for something a bit “closer” to Melbourne and with a more adult vibe, the Robert Gordon Pottery’s outlet and paint studio is located in a factory at the back of Pakenham.
I made a booking at the RGP studio with my friend and waited with eager anticipation for the date to roll around. Much to my disappointment Melissa was summoned for bridesmaid duties at the last moment leaving me without a pottery date. I decided to adventure out to Pakenham on my own.
Upon arrival I was directed to the studio space in the corner of their large, open plan retail outlet. There were several shelves full of raw RGP products waiting to be decorated. The pieces were priced by type and I went straight for the $10 dinner plate special. I was seated at my table for two. Each table had bottles of coloured paint, a palette, a mix of brushes, a glass of water, a grey-lead pencil and a ceramics pencil. What followed was a well rehearsed set of instructions: you can draw your design in grey-lead pencil which will burn off during firing, if you want sketch lines that stay use the ceramic pencil, don’t layer too paint thickly as it will peel off during firing, write your booking number on the rim, the piece will be available for pick-up in two weeks. Phoah, that was a lot to take in!
I was now left to my own devices. I sat there for at least one to three minutes regretting that I had not pre-planned a design. And without a buddy to bounce ideas off I was on my own. After some internet webbing I settled on a minimalist wattle design. It will complement my addiction to native themed items perfectly. It took all of a few minutes to complete. To make the journey worth my time (50 minutes travel one way!) I also grabbed a $5.00 dish and painted an abstract design on it. Job done I left my pieces on the table and went off to browse the shop.
Two weeks later I had to go and pick up my pieces. They could have posted but I opted to drive back and have another session. I invited Mum along this time for some mother/daughter crafting. We were both excited to be there but also a little bit stressed about what to paint.
If I ever wanted to feel inadequate about my drawing and design skills, asking mum to come along was definitely to way reinforce that inadequacy. Mum spent many years creating her own designs for her china painting hobby. Mum decided to just free-styled some gumnuts and leaves. Gah! The raw skill of this woman makes me feel like I’m crawling in a creativity desert. Eventually I settled on painting some more wattle.
After 20 minutes of painting we cleaned up our tools and got to browsing the shop again. I also collected my previous creation from the store room. This is where the disappointment set it. They apparently had a firing error which saw the batch fired for too long/too short (I cannot remember), and my yellow wattle was now peach! The same colour error happened with my little dish too but the design for that one was more forgiving. I was offered a credit note and though saddened by the issue I was happy that they were so quick to offer me compensation.
What I can say about the day is that Mum and I had a great time painting our plates and though I have yet to return for my third session - I am thinking maybe I might paint some more wattle.
Would I do this again? Yes, and not just cause I have a credit note.
Do I suggest you do this? Yes! Do it. Do it now. Do it yesterday.
The cost is so very affordable. Most products were around the $10 - $20 mark. The duration of your time there will depend on the complexity of your design but I think they recommend around 20 minutes for a session. I HIGHLY recommend booking a table to avoid disappointment. Depending on how serious you take your craft you might want to have a concept in mind before you arrive, otherwise you can just freestyle it like the five year old kid who just aimed to cover every square centimetre of the plate with paint - which is a valid design choice.
The plates are pretty heavy so I don’t think you could make it your new dinner set but they do make a nice serving plate.
Whilst the factory location is not what you would expect for a craft experience it is wonderful to have the opportunity to browse the RGP products and pick up a couple of bargains. The glaze works on their mugs is just exquisite.
