Handling Your Kid For Ceramics

Has your kid ever come home from a birthday party loaded with sugar and carrying a bag of plastic junk and candy? It’s a pretty common occurrence these days as moms resort to easy, traditional birthday parties and favors. Imagine instead throwing a kid-friendly party that is not only fun, but encourages creativity and sends guests home with a unique item that they made themselves. Ceramic parties for kids do just that, and they are one of the hottest new trends in kids’ parties.

Take Your Next Kid Party to a Ceramics Shop

Painting ceramics was once the domain of old ladies and weird guys with long hair. However, as more and more people discover how much fun it can be to make something special and unique, ceramic parties for kids are becoming mainstream fun for the whole family.

Ceramics have come a long way from the time that grandma was painting kittens and flowers on plates. These days, modern ceramics centers have huge inventories of pieces that will appeal to people of all ages and skill levels. For the hostess with the mostess, there are ceramic serving pieces. For kids, there are cute collectable figures, picture frames, and piggy banks. Artistic types will enjoy adorning vases, bowels, and decorative pieces. There is something appealing for everyone.

Most ceramic studios offer hundreds of different products and dozens of colors. Some specialize in certain techniques or glazes. Most offer reasonable party pricing and will glaze and fire your pieces within a week after the party.

What to Expect at a Ceramic Painting Party

Although policies at your local ceramics shop may vary, the following points are true for almost every ceramics painting party for kids.

• Be prepared to get messy! Be sure that guests are wearing play clothes. Some places provide aprons or other coverings at their parties. If your shop doesn’t offer protection for clothes, ask parents to send kids with a large, old t-shirt to wear over their clothes.
• Most parties will last 1 to 2 hours. The younger the children, the faster they will finish painting their ceramics. For kids under seven, plan only 1 hour for your party. Teens and older kids may take as long as two hours.
• Ceramic parties for kids usually have a set price per person. Generally the price is less than $20 per child. However, some shops charge the base price plus the price of the ceramic item chosen by each child. Be sure to talk to the shop about how their pricing structure works. You may want to request that the shop offer only items in a certain price range before attending the party.
• Some shops offer lessons as part of a party package. If you have a particularly artistic group of children, you may want to consider a party option where they are actually taught a special skill by an experienced painter. Sometimes going this route is even cheaper than a standard party because there is a built in limit of the types and quantities of paints and glazes used.

Check your local listings for a ceramics shop near you, and make your next birthday party one that encourages creativity and expression instead of sugar and junk!