Painting Ceramics: A Classic Community Hall Craft
If you have any downtime outside of the parks planned - like a resort-only day, hanging out at a resort Community Hall for a few hours for an afternoon break, or even if you’re stuck inside on a rainy day - one of the top go-to activities is ceramic painting! Ceramic painting is available at any Community Hall, every single day from 10:00 AM-10:00 PM. You’ll find Community Halls at Bay Lake Tower, BoardWalk Inn, Saratoga Springs, Old Key West, and Kidani Village. Community Halls are open to everyone - you do not need to be a guest there in order to join in on the fun.
I had the opportunity to paint a ceramic piece at the Saratoga Springs Community Hall, so that’s the experience I’ll review here, but the process is exactly the same at any Community Hall you visit. The only difference will be the amount of time a piece takes to be fired (only a few resorts actually have a kiln onsite, so other resorts may build in an extra day for your piece to travel to another resort with a kiln) and the available ceramic pieces vary as well. The Cast Members there let me know that since every Community Hall has different pieces, if you see a particular ceramic piece you like at another Community Hall, you’re welcome to buy the piece there, then bring it to another Community Hall later to start painting. That works perfectly if you want to create something specific and have a Community Hall at your resort that you’d prefer to paint at.
The Saratoga Springs Community Hall is such a fun space with so many creative projects available for guests! This is definitely the largest of all the Community Halls on Disney property and it has the biggest selection of ceramic pieces. If you have a few people in your party who aren’t interested in crafts or painting ceramics, there are still plenty of things to keep them busy while you’re painting - you’ll find video games available, Disney movies playing, board games, outdoor games like ping pong and billiards, and it’s right next to the High Rock Spring Pool.
To get started, you’ll take a look at all of the available pieces and choose your favorite. There are plenty of Disney-themed pieces, pretty display-only items, and useful pieces that serve a purpose like mugs, trinket boxes, coin banks, pet bowls, and more. These pieces are all very reasonably priced, ranging from $3-$20. Ceramics are a perfect affordable souvenir for yourself, and even work great as a customized gift to bring home for a loved one. Plenty of unique seasonal and holiday pieces are available as well. We chose to paint a cool Star Wars lightsaber vase and a detailed Coco-themed spoon rest.
Once you choose your piece and pay for it, a Cast Member will go over your options with you. You can paint your piece with acrylic paint - this method is brightly colored, easier to paint, and best for younger kids or guests near the end of their vacation. The $3 magnet pieces can only be painted with acrylic paint since the magnet can’t go in a kiln. When you’re finished painting, the Cast Members will keep your piece overnight to be sprayed with gloss and dry, and it will be ready for pick up the following day. Or, you can paint your piece with glaze and have it fired in a kiln. This process takes a couple of days and is more challenging to paint (because it needs several coats and the glaze looks like a very different color before it’s fired), but your end result has a glassy finish, is food-safe, and is dishwasher-safe. I chose to glaze mine, so the Cast Member went over the kiln timetable with me and got my contact information.
Next, you’ll choose your paint colors. They’ll ask you to start with six different colors, and then you can get additional colors as needed. This part is tricky because many of the glazes are muted colors and look very similar in their liquid state, so you need to be careful to remember which color each glaze is and the exact glaze number to request for refills. There are lots of colors to choose from, and there are glazed tiles available so you can see what color your finished product will be once it's been baked. Some colors are solid, and some have fun speckles that will show up after firing. The tiles also show how vivid each glaze will appear with one, two, or three coats.
The Cast Member will bring you a work tray with your glaze colors, paintbrushes, and a water cup to rinse your brushes. Then you can get started painting! Allow at least an hour for this, and probably closer to two hours if you have a larger or more detailed piece. It’s such a comfortable place to work, with soft Disney music playing, plenty of space to spread out, and really kind Cast Members that keep checking on you and bringing you glaze refills. The glaze is very washable, so you don’t need to worry about dripping any on your clothes, and it even washes off your piece easily if you make a mistake and need to wipe some off.
When you’re finished, you’ll write your name or initials on the bottom of your piece, and a Cast Member will collect it from you. The colors will turn even paler as it dries, but it will be so much brighter once it’s fired! They’ll confirm your contact information and let you know when it will be ready for pickup. We were told our pieces wouldn’t be ready for 48 hours, but since Saratoga Springs has a kiln onsite, they were actually ready by the next day.
Your finished piece will come safely packed up in bubble wrap and wrapped well enough to survive the flight home. However, if you don’t have room for it in your luggage or will be going home before your piece is ready for pickup, you can talk with the Cast Members and arrange to ship your ceramic piece home. I loved how my vase turned out, and the day I spent painting it was so pleasant and relaxing. I’ll definitely make time for ceramic painting in my future vacations!
Ceramic Painting | Daily from 10:00 AM-10:00 PM | Saratoga Springs Community Hall
*Activity dates and times listed here were accurate at the time this review was published. Resort activities and activity schedules may change month-to-month, so be sure to check the current Saratoga Springs Recreation Calendar for updated times/dates when making plans to participate.
