Bendigo Pottery

One of the best parts about my weekend in Bendigo, Australia, was an hour long pottery lesson at Bendigo Pottery. It was the most fun thing I have done in a long time. The tutor has tught for many years at Australian universities and apparrently you spend the first two weeks of your degree learning how to throw the lay onto the pottery wheel pottery. We only had an hour... It was an amazing experience learning how to throw clay and coming out with  vase and a pot. feeling the clay between your hands and learning how just a slight movement, moving hands up, staying put and then off and how tempermental clay is, was very very cool. I kept on expecting the top to go all wobbly and the clay go flying off the wheel (I did come very very close apparrently!). I am amazed at just hat you can do in an hour, how your hands mould clay and the ease that you can make something! The pottery is firing and glazing our masterpieces and for a very reasonable $15 posting mine to NZ! It was a brilliant thing to do - my mum has a pottery wheel which I am half tempted to bust out and go for it! Maybe I should find a pottery night class. Bendigo Pottery is well known all voer Australia - they had an amazing shop with so much.
Out the back was the most incredible antique/op shop place with HUGE amounts for sale. there was so much I could ahve gone crazy over - so many gorgeous embroidered placemats, bone china, books, linen etc ... I was so tempted but stayed strong and didn't buy a thing. The fire place "cover" with teh embroidery I adored... if I lived in Australia it would have come home with me!
We spent about 3 hours here pottering and browsing and having a fab afternoon tea. Such a brilliant place to visit! I am impatiently waiting for my wares to arrive!
Have you ever pottered? It makes me happy with my tiny pottery collection - Temuka pottery pieces (I spent some of my first ever pay packets on a few items)and other pieces I have collected over the years from a few NZ potters while on road trips. Does anyone know if you can still buy Temueka Pottery? I must visit that township one day!