Ladies’ Night at Firehouse Pottery

I’m a bit conflicted as to whether or not I should refer to this monthly event as Ladies’ Night, because a big part of me really wants to call it Girls’ Night instead.

Ladies’ Night or Girls’ Night?

What’s the difference, really?

You may dismiss my quandary as trivial, a simple matter of semantics.

But for someone who writes for a living, word choice is serious business. The tone of an article – or an event, like in this case – can change by altering just one word.

This event I’m describing is Ladies’ Night at Firehouse Pottery. Each month, this paint-your-own-piece studio invites women to gather their girlfriends together to enjoy some bonding time while decorating pottery.

Ladies’ Night

The part of me that agrees with the event’s official title of Ladies’ Night does so for these reasons:

∗  It offers us grown women the chance to escape the responsibilities of work and home life for a few hours one night each month. Recently, I was able to schedule some down time here with my friend Carrie.

∗  We ladies are welcome to bring our own food to munch on, and beverages to sip on, while we paint. This means that we can eat what we want for dinner (and not what the rest of the family wants) while relaxing with a glass of wine or other adult beverages.

Of course, we could also brown-bag it with a PB&J sandwich and a Capri Sun, but that would just be a little sad on our night off.

For Carrie’s and my session at Firehouse Pottery, I swung by Han the Sushi Man to pick up some dinner for us (a made-to-order Japanese Veggie Roll for vegan Carrie, and a Spicy California Roll for me from the convenient sushi-to-go section of the restaurant).

Those of you with a keen eye may call me out for talking up the aforementioned Ladies’ Night privilege of being able to bring adult beverages to the studio, when I actually ended up bringing non-alcoholic beer for me and Carrie to drink. Here’s the thing: I love the taste of O’Doul’s with sushi, so that’s why I brought it as my drink that night. I even convinced a reluctant Carrie to try it and she really liked it!

Those are my reasons for agreeing with the event being called Ladies Night, but a large part of me feels that Girls’ Night better captures its fundamental spirit.

Girls’ Night

∗  Girls’ Night is when we spend time with our girlfriends, our playmates. This is something that we tend do less and less of as adults, so carving out time to do so is like time-traveling back to the carefree days of our girlhood, even if it’s just for a few hours.

∗  Girls’ Night encourages us to learn and explore alongside our friends. Painting pottery is not something I do often, so my skills are those of a beginner, at best. So I find some comfort sitting next to my supportive friends while I flounder along with a paintbrush in my hands, each of us learning new skills, just like we did when we were girls.

For my pottery piece, I chose a medium-sized rectangular plate (which I later learned was, ironically, a sushi platter). After looking through displays of different techniques on finished pieces, I chose to do a lace technique.

Thankfully, the staff at Firehouse Pottery gave me the step-by-step instructions I needed to tackle this painting project.

Even I was shocked at how foolproof this lace overlay technique was.

While I needed a bit of guidance painting my pottery, Carrie bravely chose to freestyle the dot design on her sweet little bird dish. I admire how she embraced her creativity and just started painting her pattern.

∗  Which brings me to my final argument for calling this event Girls’ Night, which is that, for a few hours each month, we can be childlike in how we approach the creative process. We can begin our painting projects with enthusiasm and trust, rather than with the fear of failure that many adults possess, a fear that often stops us from expressing our creativity.

Those are the reasons why I see Firehouse Pottery’s event as a Girls’ Night rather than a Ladies’ Night. Let me be clear in stating that I’m not advocating that the name be changed; I just want to convey to potential participants how liberating this experience can be, both for our overworked adult psyches and for our playful inner girls whom we often neglect.

The Details

Firehouse Pottery‘s Ladies’ Night is every Tuesday, and includes free studio fees. All you will need to pay for is the cost of pottery piece that you choose. To give you an idea of the price range, Carrie’s bird dish cost $13 and my sushi platter cost $26.

After painting your pieces, you’ll leave them at the studio so that they can go through the firing process, and the studio will call you when they’re finished (usually within one week).

I’ll admit that while I was waiting for my call, I felt as impatient as a kid waiting to open presents on Christmas morning. 

See? It all comes back to our youth, when we enjoyed freedom from responsibilities, and were excited to try new things without fear of failure.

Hmm. Maybe it should be called Inner Child Night at Firehouse Pottery.

Nope, too cheesy.

Ladies’ Night, it is then.

Firehouse Pottery is located at 112 South Main Street, Suite A. Click here to visit its website, and click here to see its Facebook page.

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This article was commissioned by the Joplin CVB, however the opinions expressed are purely my own. The purpose of Joplin MO Life is to highlight all the best that our area has to offer, and when an article is written about a restaurant, business, attraction, or event, it is because I have had an enjoyable experience and want to share it with others.

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Living Life to The Fullest!

I love seeking out new experiences and finding places off the beaten path. I started Joplin MO Life in August 2013 as a way to share my discoveries with others in the Joplin community so that they can learn about the resources that exist right in their own backyards.

I have worked in education and event planning, and have always loved to write. I hold a master's degree in journalism from the University of Oklahoma and a bachelor's degree in marketing from Tulane University.