The chip and dip set is ceramic. I went to Crankpots on Whyte Avenue in Edmonton. They're a pottery store that has all unfinished pieces. You pick the piece you want - each piece has its own price - and then for a $20 studio fee you can sit in their shop and paint the ceramics. If you're not done, you can come back and finish it later. Once you are done, you leave it there to be fired in their kiln. I've gone there a few times now, and it's a lot of fun. The pieces I've painted are painted in Hot Tamale Red and Rawhide Brown. I decided to keep it really simple and paint it in two colors that remind me of my friend. I painted the platter in all brown, then painted the edge with the red, and painted a heart in the middle. I painted the dip cup all red on the outside, and then brown in the middle, to provide a nice contrast. Once I was done painting the colors, I bought a special paint called "blooming crystals". It's full of hunky chunks, and once you put it in the scorching heat of the kiln, the chunks melt into the paint, providing a "bloom" of color overtop your base color. I decided to paint all the brown with a blooming color called spiced banana. It had brown and yellow small flecky crystals. It sort of reminded me of banana bread. I really like how it turned out (especially because I had no way of seeing the finished product before Tabitha received it!) I like how the crystals can be seen over the red edging and red heart. I made sure to coat the red extra well, so you can't see the brush strokes, but I decided to do the exact opposite on the brown parts - I made sure to leave obvious brush strokes to give it a more authentic and rustic pottery feel. I'm glad she loves it, I'm just going to have to paint myself one now! I'm terribly addicted to going to Crankpots now. It's a lot of fun, and best of all, it's a quite place away from home that I can sit, relax and craft. Hmmm. I wonder if I can play hooky from work to go...
