The Family and Friends Dinnerware Collection

It's off to a small start, but a bright bright cheerful start it is! For Thanksgiving (2008) I asked my dad to paint me a cereal bowl at a ceramics store so I could have something I can use regularly that will remind me of him. He was visiting for a week and at one point he asked me what was something special I'd like to do/see/experience during his visit, having him create something at the paint-your-own-pottery shop was my immediate request. He was rather hesitant but considering the fact that the previous day we spent looking at an unholy number of military airplanes and other "exciting" memorabilia he kind owed me.

My dad is not exactly the crafty type, he does a great job drawing up blueprints and stick figures but asking him to paint/decorate a blank piece of pottery was really pushing it. He didn't have a lot of time to think up his masterpiece but what he did end up creating was better than anything he could have taken days and sketchbooks to work out. My dad raised me on his own pretty much from the time I was 5 to 12. He loved to pick on me and one of his favorite nicknames for me was/is "Sunshine Porcupine". He took this idea and went to hard work painting the brightest yellow sunshine he could to the inside of the cereal bowl. Underneath the bowl he painted a very very prickly porcupine. It was perfect! To finish it off he included one of my favorite creatures, the dragonfly and a "HAPPY THANKSGIVIN' 08 LOVE DAD" on opposite sides of the bowl. He had to leave before the bowl was fired and I could bring it home. He has been asking me for a few months now to show him the bowl... here you go dad, many many thanks for being a good sport and for starting off my first piece of FF Dinnerware. :)


The next victims in my new personalized dinnerware collection scheme was my closest friend Philip Estes and his lovely wife Sarah. They are very book smart and art is sort of a foreign language to them. But I mean that in the most endearing of ways. They appreciate art but are more comfortable doodling math problems and dissertations than drawing or painting. For Christmas I asked for a painted plate and I got an "I.O.U.". Two months later my birthday comes around and to my HUGE surprise they had taken the time to create two dinner plates, each one creating their own masterpiece. Philip was very proud to tell me that he had looked up the color wheel online and used it as his source of inspiration for his plate. Sarah, knowing my LOVE for sushi was inspired to paint a plate full of yummy sushi rolls, seaweed and fish. You know you're loved when this kind of present comes your way. I love these two so much and just having them in my life is a present enough. :) I'm so spoiled!

By the way, Philip was reluctant to paint the ceramics just as much as my dad, but he admitted that while they were there doing it they got into a kind of zen mode and really really enjoyed the process. Think he'd actually do it again too!

Thanks again, Dad, Philip and Sarah. Ok, who's my next victim, I could really use a second cereal bowl!