We really love trying new arts and crafts in this house so we all jumped at the chance to review Pottery Cool from Spinmaster. I did a pottery and sculpture course when I was a teenager and loved every minute of it and knew the girls would enjoy making things using a real pottery wheel.
When we opened the box we were really impressed with the contents. The wheel looked fun and colourful with bright turquoise plastic and pink accessories. It would be nice if the set wasn’t at all pink because lots of boys would enjoy this too and might be put off by the colour. It came with a variety of tools, paint and four packs of clay so you can make lots of different things straight away. It does need 4x C Batteries which I didn’t realise and bought the wrong ones so make sure you buy some as they are not included.
The battery is used to make the wheel turn. The girls really enjoyed using the spray to make the clay nice and wet.
The clay comes in a disc which means it is easy to get going. You put it over your mould and turn the pottery wheel and mould the clay so it is very smooth. The twins are six and did find this hard and kept making holes in the clay. they are at the lower age limit and did get the hang of it with help.
The clay feels really soft and is easy to mould. It is such a lovely tactile thing to work with and really good for stress relief.
once you have a smooth surface you cut your object out. You can also carve a pattern on the outside if you want. You need to remove the clay from the mould before it dries.
It took several days for the clay to dry and it is definitely worth putting it in a warm place.
Once it is dry, you can start to paint. The acrylic paints were bright colours and were thick enough to only need one coat.
This is a really lovely gift for an artistic child. Now we have had a try the girls have got lots of ideas for what to make. The Pottery Cool costs around £45, which was more than I expected. I can see we will use it for may years to come as you can buy more clay to use with it. You can sculpt clay jewellery holders, speakers, creatures and so much more.
Disclaimer: We were sent the Pottery Cool for the purposes of this review.