Hallow Primary Tile Panel

Hallow Primary School near Worcester, designed a giant version of their school logo. Each child made a tile depicting school values and things they enjoyed about their educational experience. Once they've been fired, the tiles will be mounted on an exterior wall in the playground.

Creche at St Thomas

A muddy old session to say the least! This young potter had a great time, mixing, smearing and squidgeing the clay onto all conceivable surfaces....including herself!

Last Session at Ladywood

Workshop number six of six at Sure Start Ladywood, in Birmingham. Most of the masterpieces created by participants were available to be painted on by my final visit. I hope to be back there very soon.

Wave Bye-Bye to the Snow!

Somebody from our children's half term workshops had stuck their hands into the melting white stuff to produce these lovely, well defined prints. The smattering of terracotta clay dust on their palms added to the definition. Snow's lovely and all that but hopefully Spring is just around the corner?

Chelmsley Wood Teens!

Chelmsley Wood in Solihull has a new library, and to celebrate the opening of its dedicated teenager section, I was invited to run a clay session on Tuesday evening. (I've worked with the library service in Solihull for years, bringing clay mayhem to all of the library venues in the borough. It was a privilege to spread a little clay-love in such a shiny new space!)

Yummy Mummy Children's Half Term Workshops

Here are just a few of well over sixty budding potters who joined us this week. The children made terracotta plates on the potter's wheel, then crammed them with clay sweets, cakes and biscuits. Their masterpieces will be dried and fired in time for Mother's Day on the 14th of March - the perfect pressie!
If you haven't already experienced our fabulous holiday sessions for children, the next workshops take place in the Easter holidays, on the 14th and 15th of April, and are entitled 'Smashing'. Please e-mail admin@eastnorpottery.co.uk or telephone 01531 633886, to reserve a place.

Theo's Psychedelic Daleks

After school on the last day of term, fourteen six year old, highly excited boys came to the Pottery, to work with clay and eat party food...what were we thinking!

It was all in aid of Theo's 6th Birthday party, and as both of his sisters had enjoyed their special days at the studio in the past, it was now his turn. The lads had a wonderful time making Doctor Who inspired clay models before splashing the colour onto their masterpieces.

Gorse Hill Tile Panel

Nearly there! Way back in the summer term 2009, I worked with KS2 children at Gorse Hill Primary School in Worcester, to produce a tiled version of their logo. Eventually after much 'tooing & froing' with the boxed tiles, we were requested to cut, prepare, and paint the boards, then stick down all the tiles.

Here's Sarah the Potter at work with the jigsaw and some of the finished pieces. We aim to deliver the tile panels after half term.

Vale of Evesham School

I was pleased to welcome back my old friends from the Vale of Evesham Special School to the Pottery. Once a year the staff bring around ten students for a clay session and picnic (back in the 90's I used to visit the school every Thursday to work with the Upper school in their purpose-built pottery room).

We started by passing around examples of my work for the students to experience. After chatting about clay, inspiration and techniques, I gave a demo on the potter's wheel. The thrown pot quickly evolved into a beautiful collaborative owl with everybody making feathers and features to stick on.

I regularly pose the question "where does clay come from?"..."Redditch!" came the spontaneous answer from a very knowledgeable lad who then explained the derivative -"Red-Ditch" - presumably clay pits where the material would have been excavated? You learn something new every day!

Lights, Camera...Action!

Television Junction, a Birmingham based production company, spent two days filming at Evesham Nursery earlier this week. They asked whether I'd be available to work with the children, throwing pots and working with clay. Although the footage was shot in a documentary fashion, there was a definite story that the film makers were commissioned to record...which led to a surprisingly tiring and challenging day!

The kids were brilliant (as always), and I'm sure TV Junction got some super footage. A real magic moment for me was observing young Stephen (pictured here) when the cameras had moved away. The concentration and solo enquiry as Stephen quietly explored the clay, was a pleasure to behold.

The Bucknell Mud Monster

Part of my practice I'm keen to develop is the production of earth sculpture. The opportunity to make large scale outside work that doesn't have to be pushed through the rigours of the kiln is one that excites me. So I was really pleased when Bucknell Primary School in Shropshire asked if I'd like to work with Nursery and Key Stage One, to make a 7ft mud lizard creature thing.

After we'd filled 20 sandbags with the finest Shropshire soil, we arranged them into the shape of the beast's body. The whole structure safely pegged to the ground, we all set about 'splatting' handfuls of wet mud and straw to the surface, topped off with clods of turf...Great fun!

Throw a Pot Workshop

It was a full house again on Sunday, as seven individuals of varying clay experience sampled the delights of the Potter's wheel. The youngest participant Isaac received a kick wheel as a birthday present and was keen to develop his technique. Having tried the electric wheel he opted in the afternoon for a session on our kick wheel.
Pictured above - Isaac tries his hand at 'bull nose' wedging.

Birthdays at The Pottery

Alice aged eleven, and Isabelle aged seven, both celebrated their birthdays at Eastnor Pottery on Saturday. Alice and her thirteen friends all made terracotta nightlight lanterns whilst Isabelle's party chose the Owl and The Pussycat as their theme. Check out these lovely glitter cakes commisioned especially for Alice's celebration.

Igloo's a go-go

Sisters Izzy and Katie proudly display their Igloo tea-light holders made in the Christmas holiday. The girls were just a couple of the sixty children who collected their work this weekend.

In the spirit of authenticity for the above photo shoot, we arranged for a dusting of the white stuff...Arrgghh...no more snow!!

Creative Childhood's Skills Workshop

I had the pleasure of working with twenty early years practitioners representing settings from all over Birmingham. Four different clay based activities were on offer with participants being encouraged to spend half an hour on each base, before moving onto the next - a bit like speed dating...but with clay!
The feedback received was extremely positive with everybody gleaning something from our muddy afternoon.

Eldersfield Workshop

I spent an enjoyable late afternoon working with a small group of parents and children from Eldersfield Primary School. The after school group were ferried across to the studio in a minibus to spend a couple of hours making pinch-pot sculptures and thrown pots.

Clay at the Creche

1001 ways to access clay; number 734 - full-on elbow action! Sophie loves her clay; in one session she managed to model all the members of her family, created a 'shove the bug in a hole' story, made a slide, George and Pepper Pig, ice creams, lolly pops and a birthday cake too - phew!

Evesham Nursery 2

Emilie coiled this pot and then spent half an hour sticking these little clay balls onto the surface, displaying making skills far in advance of her years.

Emilie: "finished, just need to do some little dots on the front."
Jon: "why is that the front?"
Emilie: "because I told you it is the front!"
Jon: "I'm going to call it Emilie's chocolate raisin pot"
Emilie: "I'm going to call it Rosie the pot!"

Too Many Ideas?

Something that has become apparent through conversations with various arts professionals, is that, in my attempt to showcase as many ideas as possible at The Courtyard, I think I may have overdone it! The unfacilitated making, the discovery pots, the cling film wrapped clay pots, not to mention the musical pieces, all themes and strands that all demand a separate space and time. Less is more, less is more!


Clay objects modelled and left by visitors to the show.