After mastering the art of vessel decoration, Grecian painters got carried away, tinting Athens with olive juice and daubing Spartans in paint cans. Paint the town red, yellow, or rainbow with today’s Groupon: for $15, you get $30 worth of paint-your-own-pottery at The Claypen in downtown West Hartford.

The helpful, experienced artisans at The Claypen have been helping design dabblers create artful keepsakes with friendly advice and support for nearly 15 years. Pick from an extensive selection of clay canvases in dozens of different shapes (average price between $10 and $20), then spend half an hour to two hours painting a masterpiece with a palette of color ($4 per half hour) before leaving your work for the kiln elves to bake. In four to six days, you can pick up your finished product. Pottery painting is a great time for friends to play catch up, or for grandparents and teenagers to connect and discuss generational differences, such as how landscapes used to shift altitudes so that every direction was uphill.

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WFSB Hartford featured The Claypen.