Guided Tour: Montreal ceramic cafés

Montreal has several ceramic-painting cafés that offer families a cold-day refuge and the opportunity to get creative with kids. We tried one on a recent winter day, with the idea of making a birthday gift. Results will vary depending on the age and artistic whims of your child: they could produce a sweet souvenir of childhood … or something only a grandmother could love.

Although pottery painting is best suited to children age 4 or 5 and up, the Café Céramique chain offers a “Parent-Poupon” discount on Wednesdays, for parents who want to make something while babies are sleeping. The same chain is also offering March break specials.

Choose your pottery wisely

Paint-your-own pottery places typically have a vast selection of pieces, with lots of items to give as gifts: mugs, plates, picture frames. Naturally, kids will be more drawn to characters they recognize: Incredible Hulk piggy banks and princess figurines. While we tried to encourage our sons to each pick out a mug to give as a gift, we compromised: the older son chose an Aladdin’s lamp (??) and, not to be outdone, the younger one ambitiously went for a large teapot.
Tip #1: If you’re going with the idea of making a gift, limit kids’ choices to a few items that the recipient will use. Also, know that it typically takes seven days for the finished product to be ready for pickup.
Tip #2: If your child is under 5, stick to a smaller/inexpensive object with a simple shape that doesn’t require detailed brush strokes.
Tip #3: No matter how cool those superhero/princess figurines look, it will be tough for kids age 7 and under to make the object look like the real thing.

Let the artistry begin

With our chosen pieces, we sat down to paint. Looking around the café, you’ll see lots of beautiful finished pieces, with fun designs and motifs. Remember that you are painting with kids, and that your finished products will likely turn out more …. avant-garde.

Staff members say that it takes three coats to achieve an opaque colour. The older son (7) got to work on his lamp, but the younger one (4) seemed overwhelmed by the size of the teapot and all the colour choices. Pretty soon, he just wanted lunch. So while dad quickly tried to triple-coat the teapot (you pay per hour of studio time), I tried to negotiate colour choices with the older son. There were more compromises and a lot of black was used. But at least it was opaque!

Tip #4: Try to talk to kids about what colours would look good together before starting to paint.
Tip #5: Keep designs simple: handprints, polka dots, stripes.
Tip #6: If you do paint “outside the lines”, you can do some correcting with the scraping tools provided.
Tip #7: Starving artists don’t work well! Plan to eat right before, or right after painting – not in the middle of it.

Time is money

Aside from the price you pay for the pottery piece, you’ll also pay for studio time. Although younger children aren’t likely to want to paint for more than an hour, paying studio fees for the whole family can get pricey. If you’re on a budget, this may be an outing that’s best for one parent and an older child.

Montreal ceramic cafés

The Café Céramique chain has three Montreal-area locations:

4338 St. Denis St., Montreal
565 St. Martin Blvd. W., Laval
6935 Taschereau Blvd., Greenfield Park (South Shore)

There is also Artista Café Céramique at 15757 Pierrefonds Blvd. in Pierrefonds, which offers pottery painting, jewellery making and T-shirt painting.