Colourful Pots for Pride!

Happy Pride Month! This week’s activity features queer ceramic artist Richard Milette, whose work explores the nature of gender and identity. Born in Montreal in 1960, Milette has work in public collections across Canada and the United States, including many beloved pieces at the Gardiner.

Our activity is based on one particular work from 1988 in the form of a reinterpretation of a Greek hydria, or water jug. You may have seen this classic vessel form in cartoons or costume props that reference Greek culture.

One of our pottery instructors, Audrey Mah, shows you how to make you own colour, pride-inspired pot…

You can also download the instructions as a PDF

Materials:

• Small pot or bottle (ceramic, plastic, or any other material)
• Tissue or coloured paper in a variety of hues
• Scissors
• White paint (acrylic recommended)
• Mod Podge glue or watered down white glue
• Brush for applying glue
• Jar of water

Instructions:

Paint your pot or bottle with white paint. This will be your blank canvas.

Let it dry.

Apply a thin layer of Mod Podge glue. If you don’t have Mod Podge glue, use watered down white glue. Just mix 2 parts glue with 1 part water.

Cut your tissue or coloured paper into strips or rip it into small pieces if you’re going for a mosaic effect. Apply them to your pot.

Press the strips or ripped pieces down with the tips of your fingers gently. If you want to replicate the Pride flag, arrange your strips horizontally in this order: red, orange, yellow, green, blue, and violet. For a closer resemblance to Richard Milette’s hydria, arrange your torn pieces in a random mosaic pattern.

Once you’re done applying your coloured strips, let them dry. We decided to add a red maple leaf made out of tissue paper.

You can add a final layer of glue over your finished piece as a gloss. Et Voila!

Take a photo of your work and share it using #GardinerFromHome.