I have lots of romantic notions. Every year when "The Great British Bake Off" starts, I suggest to Lucy that we bake something every week in keeping with that week's theme. Lucy nods at me knowing we won't .... and we don't! After one too many episodes of "The Great Pottery Throw Down" (and possibly glasses of Malbec) we booked ourselves on a clay Highland Cow Workshop.
It's a thing, well it is in Nottinghamshire.
Last night was the night and Lucy and I headed to Tilly Pots in Ravenshead. There was some confusion as I thought I was just painting an already perfectly made Highland Cow, Lucy laughed and informed me that I had to make one!
My art teacher at school was quite rudely relieved when he realised my lack of artistic ability was going to be the music department's problem for my GCSEs and he could concentrate on students who could draw slightly more than a stick man!
As soon as we arrived, Maria the owner made us feel very welcome and we sat at a table with some other ladies who had clearly also watched one too many episodes of "The Great Pottery Throw Down" or "Ghost".
Maria showed us the beautiful highland cows that we were aiming to craft. They were lovely and for a fleeting second I was full of hope that I too would have one of these gorgeous ornaments gracing my shelf and I could wow my guests with my artistic skills and laugh coyly when they suggest I had a real talent and should set up an Etsy shop.
That thought was short lived when I realised it's really hard to make a clay trough, which was step one in the highland cow process. Three attempts later and I had something that was sort of trough like, although secretly it reminded me of that dog footstool thing in "Beauty and the Beast".
It's hard to tell, but underneath it does have really short stumpy legs (a bit like me).
The next stage was creating the face, which was basically a smaller trough. Even typing the word trough is giving me anxiety, but I got there. I was really struggling to see my highland cow emerging, but Maria encouraged me to keep going.
Apparently ears were optional, but I'm a go hard or go home kind of girl, so I can mine ears and horns. To give you the benefit of my wisdom, ears are harder than giving your cow the horn.
Then it was time to paint. There was a moment I wanted to paint mine amber and blue and call him Lord Nigel of Clough in honour of my beloved Mansfield Town, but I decided that unlike the Stags my cow really wasn't doing that well. So I went traditional.
When it came to making the fur, Lucy had a mild panic that we were going to have to roll each individual strand, fortunately that wasn't the case and we used a garlic press to make it, which was brilliant. No wonder kids love playdough so much.
I decided to see if I could dispel the myth that you couldn't polish a turd and stuck a yellow flower on my cow's head, to see if that made it any better.
Maybe I will call him Lord Nigel of Clough! Lucy's looked way better, I might offer to collect them and then then pretend hers is mine!
Despite my lack of artistic ability, Lucy and I had the best time last night. Lucy had had quite a stressful day at work and by the time we left, we were laughing and she had completely chilled out.
Tilly Pots is based in Nottinghamshire and they offer a lot of different workshops. You can go with your family and friends, do a private session, or take your children. I highly recommend it. These are some of the sessions they have coming up, but they add more all the time, so please check their website to book.
I also want to add that I have in no way been paid to endorse them, I just went along and had a really good time!
Comments