Walking around the Triangle is an intensely physical experience, the word meant in its crudest sense: the main attraction of this admittedly beautiful and buzzy area of our darling city is food. Apart from a constantly full local Sainsbury’s and 24-hour convenience stores, it offers a truly amazing array of shops, restaurants, cafes, take-aways and other establishments dedicated to the noble cause of feeding 24/7. Not that food is bad, of course – living on the Triangle I have come to appreciate the importance of said establishments for my physical and mental well-being; however I do occasionally feel that the place is saturated (pun unfortunately intended) and that a new wind should blow in the Triangle, allowing our mind to escape from the ‘Food Craze’.

And the wind blew, and it brought Flying Saucers, Bristol’s new pottery painting café. Of course the wind should have been teeny weeny bit more powerful because Flying Saucers, being a café, offers its bit to the Food Craze, but when you walk past it, what you see instead of meaty, juicy, veggie or other such pleasure, is an array of hand-made pottery objects: Molly the dog’s very exclusive food plate; mugs with rainbows; bowls and dishes with footprints of extremely tiny people; and cups, jugs, teapots and small decorative objects with personal, quirky, sweet messages and images.

The reason why I like Flying Saucers though, is not so much that the sensitive person hidden deep inside me is touched by the loveliness of the objects shown in the window; it is the sight of people making them that gets my cynical self out of the way. From mothers with babies leaving their mark forever on a dish, couples and families, to artsy students in baggy clothes and even emo-ish teenagers actually looking happy under the layers of blackness, all people in Flying Saucers have the same dedicated, focused, deeply satisfied expression when they’re working on their pottery. Just drop in and unleash your creativity, make your masterpiece, leave it with the nice people in the shop to glaze and fire, and pick it up a few days later and the next time you have something to eat in true Triangle spirit, it will be on your very own creation.

www.flyingsaucers.co.uk

Anna Leon