All About Pottery
Here you’ll find a handy ‘How it Works’ guide for pottery painting beginners, as well as the cool things we’re doing to make our studio as good as it can possibly be!
The pottery painting process is like magic. Why do we say that, you ask? Because your pottery transforms!
When you leave it with us, it’s all powdery and pastel-coloured. When you pick it up, it’s bright and shiny!
But how? Stick with us, and we’ll tell you.
1) Pick it
Mosy definately the hardest part! We have nine shelves with over 110 different shapes to choose from, so we guarentee you’ll find something to your liking!
2) Paint it
This is the fun bit! Use our coloured paints, brushes, sponges, writer pens and speckled glazes to decorate your pottery however you like. You’ll find lots of inspiration in the studio and on our social media if you’re stuck for ideas.
That’s your job done! But your pottery needs a bit of finishing off before you can take it home. That’s where we come in…
3) Glaze it
Once you’ve left and your pottery is dry, we dip it into a blue liquid called glaze. It’s the glaze that makes it shiny, and safe to use. We leave the glazed pottery to dry for another 24 hours before it’s safe to go in the kiln. But it can’t go into the kiln until…
4) Check it
After your pottery has well and truly dried, we check it for any lumps and bumps which need to be smoothed out. We also dry-foot anything that has a rim. That means that we rub the glaze off the pottery’s bottom edge, so that it doesn’t get stuck to the kiln. (That would be a bit awkward to explain…)
5) Cook it
This is where the magic happens! We load the pottery into our kiln (which is effectively a giant oven) and fire it up! The kiln has space for around 50 pieces of pottery, and it heats to over 1000°C. 24 hours later and it’s cool enough to unload. Unloading the kiln is always exciting - we can’t wait to see how everything has turned out!
6) Collect it
After we’ve unloaded the pottery, every piece has to have its photo taken for the album. Then we file down any sharp edges, so that they don’t scratch your surfaces at home. Then we send a message to everyone who has a piece to pick up. Once you get your message, you can come and collect your pottery!
Our Sustainable Studio
Here at Pitter Potter, we think all businesses have a responsibility to look after the planet - it’s the only one we’ve got, after all! We may be tiny, but we’re doing our very best to keep our impact minimal. As our valued customers, we’d love to share our methods with you!
In the Olden Days, before Pitter Potter existed (2023), we had a question: How can we set up a pottery studio whilst helping the planet and keeping to a budget? We found a few ways, and here they are!
Going Green, Right from the Start
Love Paint, Hate Waste
Did you know that two weeks’ worth of the studio’s waste can fit into a tiny carrier bag?
We’re very proud of that! But how do we do it?
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Recycle, Recycle, Recycle
We;re quite keen on our recycling, in case you hadn’t noticed! If you bring any bottles, packets, cups or wrappers to snack while you paint, leave them with us at the end. Rest assured, they’ll be sorted by hand, go into our colour-coded recycling bins and be responsibly disposed of. (But to go one better, bring your drinks and nibbles in reusable containers from home!)
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Food Waste...
…is most definately minimal! Even we draw the line at trying to recycle half-eaten sandwiches, but since we don’t serve food or drinks, this isn’t a frequent problem. There used to be a lot of food waste from Birthday parties, but since we changed the policy (non-perishable nibbles only!) we’ve seen a huge improvement.
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Single-Use Coffee Cups
Did you know that 2 billion coffee cups are thrown away every year in the UK? We think that’s awful! We wash out and recycle any single-use cups brought in by our visitors, but we’re trying to reduce the amount that are used. How can you help? By planning ahead and bringing your hot drink in a flask! (or bring your own reusable coffee cup - any of Tenbury’s cafes will be happy to fill it for you)
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Paint-Rescuing
Granted, it’s not the most exciting of jobs, but we think it’s very important! When painters over-estimate how much paint they’ll need, and leave a palette full of pretty colours at the end, one of us will scoop each colour back into its bottle. That way, it can be reused and doesn't just end up down the sink (we don’t always have time to do this though, so please use up everything in your palette!)
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Paper Towels...
… are nowhere to be found! While you paint, you’ll be given a piece of cloth to keep you paintbrush dry. We take all the cloths home at the end of the week to be washed, and the cycle begins again! (Oh, and you won’t find any in the WC, either. That’s what the handtowel is for!)
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Baby Wipes
Turns out, baby wipes are completely evil and never decompose. So, we banned them! Instead, we use soft flannels dipped in lukewarm water to clean little hands and feet at our printing appointments. Just like the painting cloths, these are then washed and ironed back at home.
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Single-Use Partyware
This was a bit of a problem - so we solved it! Parents holding a children’s Birthday in our party room no longer need to stock up on paper plates, thanks to our stock of bright and colourful picnic ware - totally reusable and made of recycled wood fibre!
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Bubblewrap...
…is banned! We display your pottery in our windows until you come to collect it, and we always ask you to bring a box and some tea towels to transport your pottery home. For those who forget, we use newspapers donated by our neighbours, and the boxes that our pottery deliveries come in!
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Plastic-Free Packaging...
…on all of our pottery! We get the blank bisque shapes delivered from our wholesalers, and we’re glad to report that it arrives in cardboard boxes with cardboard inner packing. No plastic, bubblewrap, polystyrene or packing peanuts!
The BIG Questions
Dear Pitter Potter, I’ve Been Wondering…
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We don’t have the facilities or time to make anything on-site, so we buy our pottery from several UK suppliers. Some of our pottery is made in Britain or Europe (yay!), but unfortunately, quite a lot does come from China and Thailand. We’re not very comfortable with this, so we’re looking into just using European-made pottery. However, it turns out UK-made bisque is rather expensive, and we don’t want to put that extra cost onto you, our visitors. Basically, we know we’ll find a solution, but we’re not quite there yet!
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We are proud to say that our daily commute has a carbon footprint of zero! (It’s a wonderful benefit of living ten minutes walk from the studio) Our team also bring their own metal water bottles and resusable lunch boxes, so no waste there, either!
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They are indeed! We use our brilliant local printers, The Ink Spot, and we were very specific when we requested recycled paper for our leaflets. When you’ve finished with your leaflet, you can either bring it back to us to reuse, or pop in in your paper recycling - don’t break the cycle!
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It does, but we’d be a bit stuck without it! Our kiln runs off the electricty, and we’re very careful to only go with suppliers who use 100% renewable resources. Obviously it’s best to use as little electricity as possible, but at least we know it’s not causing pollution. Another great thing about our kiln is that it’s very well-insulated - no heat escapes from it during firing, so no energy goes to waste!
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Nope, we don’t even have a gas supply! We keep warm in winter with our wonderful infrared heating panels - and you can read all about those in the Green Studio section, further up the page!
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We haven’t - yet. We’re a very tiny business, and we don’t manufacture anything. But that doesn’t exempt us from needing to know our impact, and working to reduce it. Getting a full analysis would mean that all our suppliers would also need to be analysed, so there are a lot of logistics to figure out! We’ll get there eventually, but for now, we’ll keep working to minimise our daily impact in any way we can.
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Don’t worry, it’s completely safe! We get our loo roll delivered from a wonderful company called Naked Paper, who make it all from recycled materials (no, not old loo roll!) The beige colour is just becuase it hasn’t been bleached, meaning that no nasty chemicals have gone anywhere near it!
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Because we take all the soft packets and wrappers left by our visitors to the supermarket, to be recycled there. It’s easy for us to do, and means that your crisp packet gets a whole new life (plus it saves you walking across the studio to find the bin!)
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Yes! In 2025, we began ‘Paint With a Purpose’ days, where a percentage of all pottery painted goes to a good cause. On these days, we also have lots of information available about our chosen charity and their good work Our latest charitable event was Wildlife Week, in May, where we donated a percentage of our profits to Buglife!
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There are plenty of ways you can make your trip more sustainable; here are our Top Picks:
Plan ahead. Make your packed lunch and fill up your coffee flask at home, so that you don’t have any rubbish to dispose of.
If you want to get a coffee in town, pack your own reusable coffee cup to save getting a disposable one.
Just pour out a small amount of paint at a time, and use up everything in your palette to save us having to wash it down the sink.
Visit on a Paint With a Purpose Day or pop a few pounds in our charity box to make a difference while you paint!
You’ll need to collect your pottery when it’s ready If you’re not very local, plan out a whole day in the area, rather than making a long journey for one thing. Alternatively, we can post your pottery back to you from just £4.00.
When you come to pick up your pottery, bring some tea towels and a box to save our newspaper!
Come and join in the fun!
Book a session or get in touch with any questions, suggestions or reflections? We'd love to hear them! Just pop your message in that box down there.