Withington Workshop

Busy young potters decorating their coilpots, at a workshop session, Withington Village Hall, Herefordshire.

Zodiac '09

I spent a glorious weekend in Oxford, working with 700 children (not all at once mind you) at Zodiac 09 - a huge festival celebrating Oxfordshire's Cub Scout movement. The organisers reckoned there were over 2500 children camping out and enjoying an extensive variety of activities. The sun shone brightly all weekend and by 4pm on Sunday we had produced a gigantic collaborative caterpillar. Once it's fired, we'll post a photo of the beast on the blog.

'Drying caterpillar segments'

Vanda's Snowman

Regular workshop participant Vanda, puts the final coat of slip onto her snowman kitchen roll holder. As well as finishing off a few pieces from last time, Vanda produced a multitude of ceramic beads. I dare say the world will be seeing some amazing necklaces and bracelets in weeks to come!

Mud Sofa's Are Us!

Yet another one! This time it was constructed at Ashton Under Hill pre-school play group. Regular visitors to our blog will know that we've been working closely with the group - developing their outside space to play (see blog entries Monday, 23 March 2009 & Thursday, 12 March 2009 ).

Family & friends of the staff and children dropped by during the day for pizza, sausage rolls and a shed load of muck spreading!

This bench had a distinctly modern feel - a contemporary, curved design - (I'm sure there must be an appropriate clay inspired acronym for DFS!) We all finished just in time before the heavens opened, and generously watered the grass seed we had sewn into the surface.

The whole area looks fantastic - mud pit, mud screen, marble run, and finally a sofa. A real testament to the enthusiasm, vision and hard work of the staff, children and parents - well done Mirka and Ruth!

Carlsberg Team Day

What better way to bond together a freshly formed team of marketing professionals than with mud!
Helen Forbes (Senior Category Insight Manager for Carlsberg), brought her colleagues to Eastnor Pottery, for a three hour teambuilding session. The group spent time making a collaborative pot, decorating the surface with self portraits and items symbolising their unique attributes and occupational contribution to the new team.

As the group was relatively small (6 people), everybody was assigned a potter's wheel for the afternoon, and spent the remainder of the session perfecting their technique.

A fantastic and rewarding time was had by all: "I'll be recommending you to everyone I can think of in the corporate world. We all need more mud in our lives ",commented Helen later.

University of the Great Outdoors

Over 2000 visitors a day made their way to Hampton Court, near Leominster, to sample a multitude of outdoor activities at the University of the Great Outdoors, (an event organised by Hereford Council). We had four wheels available for people to have a go on, and ran taster sessions throughout the weekend. Elliot, aged 8, gives it a spin!

Spring Gardening Show

Another of my long standing clients, is the Three Counties Agricultural Society. Every year, I provide clay based workshops for their three main events, (Spring Gardening, Three Counties, and Autumn Gardening Shows).

This year at the Spring Gardening Show, I vacated the relative warmth/roof over my head of the Severn Hall, and worked instead in the permanent Learning Garden. I spent three muddy days creating a large earth sofa, accosting passers by, or thrusting a lump of soggy cob onto their hands and getting them to hurl it at the structure. This one's going to be sewn with wild flower seeds.

Evesham Bread Oven

One of the things I really cherish about working with the staff at Evesham Nursery, is their willingness to allow me to experiment with new ideas. I'd never made a clay bread oven before, but having expressed an interest in building one, the head embraced the idea with enthusiasm. So it was I spent two fabulous spring days with the children in the Nursery's forest school, digging earth, mixing cob, shaping bricks and generally having a messy nice time!


On day two we lit small fires in the oven to help dry it out. Whilst the oven smoked quietly, we built another fire in base camp, and smoke fired some of the pots the children had made previously on the potter's wheel...and some people have to work for a living!