From Colour Walks to Pottery: Bringing Mindfulness into the home

If you’ve been scrolling through social media lately, you might have noticed the rise of colour walking. It’s a simple but powerful practice: choose a colour before you head out for a walk and spend your time noticing every place it appears. A yellow door. A sunflower. A jacket passing by. A road sign. Suddenly, your walk feels less like rushing from point A to B, and more like an adventure in mindful seeing.

Colour walking is all about presence. By narrowing your focus, you expand your awareness. You begin to see shades and tones you might otherwise miss and each discovery feels like a small moment of joy.

But here’s the exciting part: you can carry that same mindfulness back into your creative hobbies. For pottery painters, colour walking offers a fresh, inspiring way to approach your ceramic creations.

Turning a Colour Walk into Pottery Inspiration

Step 1: Take a Colour Walk

Pick your colour and go for a wander. Keep your phone handy for quick snapshots or simply make mental notes of where it appears. Was it a pale blue in the sky, a deep navy in a shop sign, or a bright turquoise in someone’s trainers?

Step 2: Collect Your Palette

Back at home (or in the studio), reflect on what you noticed. Lay out paints that echo those hues. Pay attention to the variety—you’ll often find surprising gradients of a single colour. You can also try mixing your perfect shade by adding a little white or black to a colour you have, which is similar to the one you want, but needs to be a smidge lighter.

Step 3: Translate to Pottery

Now let your walk shape your painting. Maybe you paint repeating dots inspired by the blue fence posts you noticed, or you wash layers of green to echo the moss and leaves you saw. Don’t worry about realism—the goal is to let impressions guide your brush.

Step 4: Stay Present

As you paint, let your attention rest in the process. Notice the movement of your brush, how the paint pools or blends, the way your chosen colour transforms the pottery’s surface. Just like the walk, it’s about slowing down, noticing and enjoying yourself.

Why It Works

• Mindfulness: Extends the calming focus of the walk into your home.

• Unique Inspiration: Your pottery becomes a reflection of your day and surroundings.

• Storytelling: Each piece carries a memory of where you were and what you saw.

Try It Yourself

• Keep a “colour journal” with photos or sketches from your walks to inspire future pottery projects.

• Do this as a group activity—everyone picks a colour, goes for a walk, then paints together.

• Explore seasonal palettes: spring pastels, autumn rusts, winter blues.

The next time you pick up a brush, let your walk guide your colour choices. You might find that your pottery becomes more than just decoration—it becomes a story of where you’ve been and the mindful moments you noticed along the way.

So, what colour will guide your next pottery piece?