Desert Dragon Pottery!

So, I have wanted to make this update for a long time--basically since I took my mom to this place in July/August.

But this story really begins when I was a young girl still living with my parents. One day my mom said to me, "You know, I was really good at pottery when I was in high school." I think she said this to me in middle school. Just in case you were wondering. Then she said, "I made this little clay elephant, and I loved it. But it is lost now."
For some reason, this conversation has stuck with me for 10+ years.

Holidays or birthdays generally stress me out because I want to give an awesome gift that the other person will really love. But I rarely find these gifts. In particular, I struggle with finding gifts for my mom. If she wants something, she will buy it. But then one day, when I was perusing Groupon, I saw an advertisement for Desert Dragon Pottery! I realized, my mom could relive her childhood! So I bought two. What made it better was that it was literally 7 minute drive from her house!

She had no idea what was waiting for her. I told her we were going on an outing which might take half the day, and she should wear something messy. This slightly distressed her, so I told her what we were doing. She sounded somewhat excited but more or less hesitant.

When we drove to the place, it was a little strange. I thought it would be an actual studio in a business building. Instead, it was in the garage of someone's house on a dirt lot accompanied by a dirt road. It was a bit strange. It was also strange that we were the only ones (only car) there when we were meeting for a class, which I was told was going to be full.

At this point, my mom was pretty skeptical. I won't lie. I was too. Well we got out of the car and stood outside for a bit, not really sure where to go plus the place looked deserted.

I finally asked, "Do you think we go in there?" Pointing to the garage. Before my mom could even answer, a black cat materialized out of no where and looked at us then walked to the garage door, then looked at us again as if saying, "In here!" It was, in fact, a magical moment.

Well, when given this situation, who wouldn't follow a black cat. So we did this and we found our teacher. She wasn't really ready for us or prepared or even happy to see us. But we got her to warm up to us later.


The teacher finally decided to start class after another lady strolled in. It seemed the rest of the people were driving as a group and were late. In other words, we just scored a private pottery wheel lesson! She gave us enough clay to make three pieces and really helped us make something that didn't look like it came from kindergarten.

When we were done, we were told to come back in three weeks to paint it. This was all included in the groupon! :) (on a side note, this studio really dabbles in all forms of clay art-sculpture, pottery wheel, all types of kilns, and has pieces already made in case you just want to paint pottery).

So we did.

We were allowed to use any glaze of any type and encouraged to really try the different varieties they had. It was really fun! And there wasn't a time limit. Since it was an independent studio (and not 'the man'), they even said we could come back and finish our pieces later. I will be honest and say the owners are not the friendliest people, but once they get used to you being in their space they start to warm up.

So, I think it was a successful birthday gift. Although it wasn't an elephant, my mom got to relive her past interests and paint her own work of art/bowl/cup/thing. We also met a magical cat.