Behind the scenes

Also on Saturday, we held our Big Draw 2007, in which artst Jacquelyn Rixon led families in creating their own masterpieces using vegetable juices made from local vegetables, and using vegetables such as carrots as painting brushes! Participants created a large communal piece of art as well as smaller individual pieces of art. To form the link with Prestongrange, with its history of ceramics, our budding artists were encouraged to make cabbage leaf prints in clay. Similar cabbage leaf plates were made by the old pottery of Belfield’s in Prestonpans (see the thumbnail picture of one such plate in our collection); will the cabbage leaf plates created at this year’s Big Draw be the collectors items of the future?

The second leg of our pottery workshop (see blog entry passim) took place on Saturday, and we’re happy to report that all of the pieces that went into the kiln came out in one piece, thanks to the care and expertise of the ceramicist who kindly offered to fire them for us, namely Diana Hoare of North Berwick Community Centre. After an initial firing, the ceramics would usually be glazed and then returned to the kiln for a second firing. However, in this instance, and to avoid them having to wait an additional week or more, the children returned to paint their creations with a mixture of poster paint and pva glue (which gives the paint a slight sheen), and then take away their finished masterpieces that day.