CAFE CERAMIQUE OMAN

DIY
Painting for pleasure

Last month witnessed the opening of Café Céramique, a delightful café-cum-studio in Al Araimi Complex in Qurm that allows its customers to paint biscuit pottery while also enjoying things to eat and drink. The menu is pretty extensive, ranging from coffees and juices to an all-day breakfast, bagels, soups, salads, sandwiches and the so-called Chef’s Specialities, but it’s the paints and brushes that make this café unique. Visitors can choose a piece of unglazed pottery – there’s a wide selection, everything from plates and platters to jam pots and mobile phone holders – and then sit and paint it. In addition to conventional, water-based ceramics paints, Café Céramique offers ‘puffy’ paints that create an embossed effect. Decorated pieces are then glazed and fired in the in-house kiln for 36 hours at over 500°C, after which they are microwave and dishwasher safe. The ceramics are then ready to be collected and taken home. Café Céramique opened six years ago in the UAE and today has additional branches in Doha, Riyadh and now Muscat. Armand Ursua, event and marketing coordinator, adds that the company aims eventually to go all over the region, opening in Kuwait, Jordan, Lebanon and Egypt. Certainly the Muscat branch is brimming with crowd-pleasing ideas to lure customers through the doors. Among the events on offer are children’s parties, workshops for adults and children, and corporate activities. Café Céramique is open daily, 9am–11pm. Paints, glazing and firing are included in the price of individual pieces of biscuit pottery, which vary according to size – a small plate costs around RO5.500. For details, call 24 566617.
OMAN TODAY - June 2008