Well, this post was quite a while in the making!
Last September I stopped into Fired Up pottery and art studio to do a People of Peoria post. Heather, who manages the studio, posed for me and then we talked about me making a special plate for the ever-popular and awkward “Can I Eat My Lunch In Here?” MBIP series. I’ve had a string of bad luck with that series and thought maybe a specially made plate would bring me luck. Plus I just thought it would be a fun thing to do. So Heather and I made a plan to do this and then a not-so-funny thing happened the following week.
I started having bad pains in my chest, went to the doctor and found out I had to have open-heart surgery! Well, that put a bit of a damper on the blog and my life in general, so I had to cancel the plate plans with Heather as I had to be prepared to be sliced open and have two arteries replaced in my heart. Here’s some photos from that heart-breaking moment in time.
Happily, four months later, I’m pretty well all healed up and I’d say it’s about time to make this plate and get out somewhere and see if I can eat my lunch in there! Let’s get over to Fired Up and finally get this done!
Here we are at Fired Up arts and crafts pottery studio, which is handily located right next to Emack & Bolio’s on Prospect in the Heights. Sadly those lazy bums at Emack’s are closed for the next month or so, so no ice cream today! However, we should take note of the unplanned obligatory mirror shot in the doorway! I love it when that happens. Okay, let’s get inside, it’s freezing out here!
Wow, lot’s of other people had the same idea as me! It’s crowded in here. And Heather’s busy with two people at the desk. We’ll let her take care of business and this gives us a good excuse to take a little tour of Fired Up.
There’s one of the many tables which has some of the tools you’ll need to paint your pottery in here. You can just walk-in here, but they suggest you make a reservation in case it’s busy like today. The phone number for reservations is 309-685-8906. Studio fees and pottery prices, studio hours and other information are listed on their website which you can look at by clicking right here.
Here’s some of the pottery on shelves waiting to be personalized and painted.
I’m here to make a plate and there’s many finished one’s hanging on the wall for inspiration!
You don’t need to bring anything here, all the paint and supplies are included in the studo fee.
Now Heather’s on the phone, she’s certainly busy today! Let’s keep looking around in here, because there’s more to see.
In the back they have a party room for adult and children’s birthday parties, bachelorette parties, girl’s or guy’s night’s out and more for a fun painting party here. And if you want to indulge in an adult beverage, you can bring beer and wine in here as well as finger food and snacks. Sounds like a fun and different way to spend an evening!
Look at all the items waiting to be picked up! It’s fun just to look at all of the different pottery and art in here. My favorite is the Tea-Rex! Ha ha ha, I love that!
Okay, Heather’s free and it’s time to start making our special plate. This is the plate and template she made in our pre-open heart surgery days! Heather set it up to stencil the lettering on the plate.
Now it’s time for me to get to work and transfer the stencil to the plate. You can put any message, words or artwork on to a plate. There’s the finished stencil. Now it’s time to get a little artistic!
Here I am painting in the magical MBIP question: “Can I eat my lunch in here?”
You can use multi-colors on a plate, but I chose to keep it simple and just use black. That way the plate matches my outfit and my mood!
Now it’s time to fire up the plate in the kiln. They have three kilns here and the temperature gets up to 1800 degrees. Hey Paris and Nicole, what do you have to say about that?
I agree! Okay, now it bakes in the kiln for about 30 hours. And then...
Here’s Heather with the finished plate! It looks fantastic and I love it! I can’t wait to use it and I let Heather choose the next location for the upcoming “Can I Eat My Lunch In Here?” segment. We’ll be featuring that next Wednesday, so stay tuned for that and find out where she sent me!
Thanks to Heather for the help and hospitality, hopefully this plate will bring us some better luck!
--------
4532 N Prospect Rdoad
Peoria Heights
309-685-8906
--------
Related Posts: People of Peoria and Chest of Sores.