Pottery
PUBLIC WORKSHOPS and open access memberships
ABOUt OUR pottery WORKSHOPS and memberships
Our pottery workshops are relaxed and friendly sessions open to all, whether a seasoned potter or an absolute beginner. Come along, de-stress and lose yourself experiencing the wonders of clay! Over time and with experience you can move on to our membership option, scroll down for more details:
Taster Sessions for beginners and for those with experience:
These are tutor led workshops where each session focuses on a different making experience with a specific end product being made. This means that over a period of weeks you will have an introduction to a range of hand building techniques and practices covering all the fundamentals for working with clay, from thumb-pots and coil building to tile making, slab construction, pressmoulding and basic decorating and glazing techniques. These workshops can be repeated as often as you like and as you build your skills you can branch out and work on independent projects still under the guidance of the tutor.
For people with a current membership the discount for a session is 15%.
Throwing:
Throwing is a particular skill with separately booked sessions available as single one-off tasters and advanced sessions for those wishing to build their skills, for example, making handles, spouts and lids. Longer two and three day blocks where you can see your work through from beginning to end - throwing, turning and slip decorating can run periodically if there is demand. Membership discount is 15%.
memberships:
The membership option gives you open access to the workshop and allows you time to develop your practice once you have built your skills and feel competent at working more independently. There will be a technician on site to give you pointers but there will not be tutoring as such. The technician will be there working on various aspects of technical work in support of both the day time and evening workshops. If you find you need access to a tutor you can jump on to one of the taster or throwing sessions at a discounted rate. The membership gives 8 hours access on Tuesday and Thursday evenings from 4.45pm - 8.45pm.
Booking is termly in three monthly blocks with breaks in December, April and August. To book go to the MEMBERSHIP tab on the home page.
Other workshops:
Check the bookings link at the top of the page for family or children's workshops and special seasonal sessions as these are regularly updated.
A bit about the equipment, materials and the space:
The pottery is a large, open plan space where we have fourteen bench based workstations, six electric pottery wheels, one of which is accessible for seated, wheelchair or standing use, a slab-rolling machine for preparing large slabs of clay, an extruder for coils and hollow forms, a large selection of plaster moulds and tools and a reclaim and clay prep area with pugmill for recycling clay. We have three electric kilns of varying sizes. We stock a basic range of three stoneware clays - white, buff and crank which is complemented with a comprehensive range of dipping glazes, coloured slips, underglaze colours, stains and colouring oxides.
Every attendee new to the workshop receives a Health and Safety briefing and an introduction to workshop practices before starting. There are potential hazards in working with clay and associated materials and specifically from the dust that can be generated which everyone should be aware of.
