grame.smith: Let's create! Pottery HD for iPhone and iPad review

With it being sleep and relaxation week here at iMore for Mobile Nations fitness month, I've been on the hunt for related apps, and the newest gem I've discovered is Let's create! Pottery HD for iPhone and iPad. This pottery-creating app is surprising relaxing and fun.

The menu screen of Pottery HD shows a piece of clay slowly spinning on table with out-of-focus greenery in the background. As you move around your iPhone or iPad, the background will slightly move around as if you are changing your orientation.

After you go through the initial tutorial your inbox will be your source of quests to create beautiful pottery pieces beginning with your Aunt Chloe. Through her, word spreads of your work and other people come to you to make pieces for them.

To create a pottery item, you simply use your finger on the piece of clay. Moving your finger up or down the clay will make is taller and shorter, moving out from the center will make it wider from that point, and moving in towards the center will make it thinner.

After you've shaped your item, you must send it to cooked. As it goes through the firing process, a progress bar displays and the background makes it appear that the clay is in a hot oven. Then it's time to decorate it.

You can decorate your pottery with paint, ornaments and fancy brushes that stamp a pattern on your artwork. You do this all while the item slowly spins on the wheel. The constant movement in Pottery HD is part of what makes it so relaxing, engaging, and beautiful.

If you have an active quest, then a little picture of what you're supposed to create will be displayed while you work towards your goal. On this polaroid snapshot, there are two different objects: the shape and design. You can earn put to 5 stars for each one. As long as you get three stars in each, your piece will be accepted.

There are two things about creating ceramics with Pottery HD that are disappointing. The first is that when adding paint, sometimes it doesn't register the correct spot and actually adds the paint higher than you would expect.

The other is that sometimes it's way too difficult to get even just three stars for your decorations. The screenshot above demonstrates this -- my vase looks almost identical to the photo, yet I only earned three stars. The one I made before this one only earned me two stars even though it was just a little shorter. Both vases earned 5 stars for the shape, so I don't think it's fair that the height alone made me earn one less star for decoration.

If the ceramic you are making is not for a quest, then you have an option to sell it. You need coins to buy new decorating tools for your quests.

The good

Great graphics
Quests to make pots, vases, cups, and more
Earn coins when completing quests to buy materials to decorate your creations
Build your own pottery to sell and raise money
More decorations available as in-app purchases
Relaxing
Fosters creativity
Universal for iPhone and iPad

The bad

Touch isn't precise enough when adding paint
Sometimes it's nearly impossible to get 5 stars for the look your creation
No way to save snapshots of your pieces in the app
Once you sell an item, you can view even a photo of it in the app. It would nice to see a collection of everything you've made.

The bottom line

Let's Create! Pottery HD is the next best thing to actually creating real life ceramics, yet has the benefit of being able to kick back and relax while you sculpt your pottery without the mess.