Bojangles Butterfly

Today, my friend Rachel and I spent a lovely afternoon in Bojangles - the craft cafe in Amersham. In case you're unfamiliar with the concept: you pay £5 studio fee, which includes unlimited paints, unlimited time and the firing process in the kiln after you've finished, and then you choose a ceramic item to paint (which are all individually priced) and that's it! You can also do some decopatch - which is like decorative papier mache essentially: really simple but so effective! I don't think you pay the studio time, because you do pay for the papers, glue and brush in addition to the item you're decopatching BUT you do get to keep the leftover paper, glue and brush.

So, today we spent a good 4 hours crafting. I painted a ceramic butterfly and Rachel did some decopatch stars. This was Rachel's first decopatch adventure and she did really well! She picked it up so quickly and she was even brave enough to use 3 different papers! I don't have any pictures, but take my word for it - they look great! =D

My ceramic butterfly took me a long time, but I think it was worth it because I love it! In order to achieve good colour after it's been fired, you have to paint 3 layers. I decided to use 4 colours and some of it was very fiddly, but I don't mind taking the time to get nice crisp edges if I can!

This is my butterfly - who is currently, unnamed =( - before firing. Next Thursday, I'll be able to pick her up and she'll have been fired and will be ready to come home. The colours will look shinier after firing, but this will give you an idea.

Because it's not been fired yet, the colours aren't so bold and obvious here so I shall tell you. The main colour on the wings will be a dark purple, with a lemon yellow on the edges. There are 4 blue spots, a green body and green in the folds of the wings. I also painted the back yellow, because the butterfly rests with one wing flat on the surface and the other one sticks up at an angle, so the back will be on show!