At the beginning of the year, our cluster made a list of potential cluster bonding moments that we hoped we could fit into our busy schedules throughout the semester. One of these ideas was Paint a Pot! Found in many larger cities, these pottery shops allow you to pick out a piece of plain pottery and paint your own design. You can use any color paints they have there and a week after you create your piece, you can pick it up clean, polished and fired in their kiln, yielding a piece that holds memories forever!
Last Friday night, we decided to make a trip (only a block away) to Paint a Pot to make some quick and beautiful heartfelt Christmas presents. The pieces they had there ranged from coffee mugs to platters to wall hangings to floor tiles. My clustermate, Betsy, even made herself a little painted giraffe!
Here I am working hard on one of my gifts:
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Finally, this Friday, we picked up our pieces after they had been fired many times and glazed. We weren’t sure how they’d turn out because of the colors we chose to paint with. Sometimes it’s difficult to tell if you’ve added enough layers of paint to get a covered surface or if your colors will be well coordinated after they go through the heating process. However, we arrived to find beautiful designs that looked awesome.
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That night we had the Dykstra Cluster decorating competition, where our Resident Director and her family went around to judge each cluster. We were very prepared with Santa, Mrs. Claus, and all the elves.
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Afterwards, I walked around Hope’s campus with Santa. He even started breakdancing in front of Phelps!
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It was an awesome, Christmas-filled day. Did I mention it was the last day of classes for the semester?
I love my cluster!
-A