Before I headed over here I started emailing with someone at one of the paint-your-own-pottery studios in London (stick with what you're good at, right?). It seems that most of these are pretty suburban and far outside the city, but this one's only a few stops north of Regents. It's also affiliated with CCSA, as is The Painted Pig, so that's how I found out about it. The manager has been in and out town recently so I only was able to call him this week, and he sounded really excited about the prospect of hiring someone who had worked with pottery before and might not require much training.
So when I walked in yesterday I was a little surprised to find a dashing young man introduce himself as the manager. He was very friendly and super enthusiastic about paint-your-own-pottery... odd. I know it's very sexist of us but Allie and I always crack up when any males walk into The Pig - they always seem so lost and confused! So it was funny to me that this 20-something, normal-seeming guy is managing this place. He was upfront with me about not necessarily being able to offer me many hours and also not having the best hourly wage either, but I assured him that is alright by me! I'll just be happy to be earning anything at this point.
Warning: I'm aware that the next few paragraphs will only be of interest to my sister.
Anywho, there are of course many similarities between Art4Fun (cool name) and Allie's studio: the glazing and firing process, the numbered colors, etc. But I can tell it'll be interesting to work there and have to conform to some of the ways that they go about things. For example, I noticed that they don't "scratch" when items come out of the kiln. Besides being dangerous, that makes the piece just seem unfinished to me! And since weekends get pretty busy they take appointments on Saturdays and Sundays. They also have all these techniques like adding sand to the paint for texture or soap to create a bubbled appearance.
It's neat to see some of the same items that we have at The Pig also for sale over here: the monkey and guitar pencil holders, the 3-in-1 tea set, heart-shaped picture frame... What's funnier is that they have a lot of the items we've seen in catalogs but never ordered. They have the smiling flower with feet (haha!) and the little tiny Christmas tree that Mary Kate said would be perfect for someone's desk; they have so many Disney princesses and Christmas Tiggers and even a Wallace and Grommet figurine. What a funny place.
So I go in tomorrow afternoon for a trial run. There are several birthday parties and an afternoon full of appointments... update to follow!
As for the 2nd job ~ my friend Dom works at a rather POSH store called Graham & Green. She mentioned that not only have they opened a new location, but they are also looking for temporary holiday help, so she took her boss my CV this week. A woman named Barbara called me yesterday and I go in Saturday morning for an interview. Yippee! I hope I am fashionable enough to work there. Like I said, posh. :)
I'll let you know after Saturday how my chances of being employed are looking.
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