Clay at the Colloquy

Jon spent a lovely morning sharing the delights of the potter's wheel with a group of families holidaying in the county. The 40-strong group regularly get together over the New Year and on this occasion chose the idyllic and spacious Colloquy in North Herefordshire to gather & celebrate.

Following a quick demonstration, all the children and adults had a go on the potter's wheel as well as modelling a fantastic and diverse range of objects including owls, fruit, mice and peas!

Little green monster

Just love this coilpot creation from one of our recent workshop participants. Jenny and her partner Graham booked a 1.5 hr clay taster session to coincide with their short Christmas break here in Herefordshire.

Yeti - Children's Pottery Workshops

Even though the Christmas holiday is a quiet time for hosting workshops, we had a respectable number of young potters attend our 'Yeti' sessions we ran in between Christmas and New Year.

Each child learnt how to make a 'yeti cave' out of a freshly made & squashed coil pot, before modelling an abominable beastie to inhabit the dwelling. Once all the making was completed, coloured slips were painted on top of the masterpieces.

The yeti's will need to be dried thoroughly before they can be fired. This will take 2-3 weeks at this time of year so the children will have to wait a while before they can collect their creations from the studio. All good things & all that!!!

We all admired the 'double brush' painting technique, demonstrated to perfection by this young pottery enthusiast!

The next children's workshops take place 23 & 24 February in the 1/2 term holiday. If you would like to reserve a place please either tel 01531 633886 or email admin@eastnorpottery.co.uk

Children's Christmas holiday pottery workshops

Just a quick reminder that our children's holiday workshop sessions will be taking place (weather permitting!) on Wed 29th Dec 2010. The very appropriate theme is 'Yeti!'

The 1.5 hr long sessions are aimed at two age groups. 11.30am-1pm (4-8yrs) and 2.00-3.30pm (9-12yrs) although younger and older siblings wont be turned away on either session!

Spaces cost £14 for one child, £13 per child for two places and £12 per head for three or more.

If you would like to reserve a place please tel 01531 633886 or email: admin@eastnorpottery.co.uk

Mother & daughter pottery session

For the past 12 months or so we've been offering our customers the opportunity to spend some quality Eastnor Pottery time, making and painting coil pots. These 1.5 hr sessions have proven popular with groups of friends, families and business collegues. Unlike many of our group workshop services, there is no minimum order, so you could come as a very small group or even as an individual.

Karen and daughter Eve wanted to create a piece of pottery that Eve could include in her school art portfolio.

Mum made a fabulous frog on a lilly pad whist Eve produced a coilpot figure reminicent of something out of the cabbage Patch Kids.

If you're looking for something creative to do over the Christmas holidays, then take at our family workshop page on our website.

Creativity project at Madley Primary School

Jon spent a pleasurable and thought provoking morning with the 20 members of staff at Madley Primary School in Herefordshire. Jon will be working with the whole school (staff, children, governors and the school's creative agent Adrian Higgins) to explore notions of creativity and how it effects the learning process. Oh yes, and there will be a lot of clay and mud fuelled fun along the way as the school collaborates to build 'muddy mountains'.

The initial session offered an opportunity to examine and discuss some key questions: What makes for a creative environment? What are considered creative attributes? What can stifle creativity? Adrian skillfully chaired the group discussion and by lunchtime there was a consensus on what issues would form the focus of the project and how they would be documented.

There was also an opportunity for the group to play with some clay, building form using little, pillow shaped units of clay. It's incredible the rich and diverse directions the staff took in their making. We've created a small photo album on our facebook page of some of the outcomes.

Christmas clay at Springfield Children's Centre

Jon the potter & Santa were guests at Springfield Children's Centre in Hereford earlier this week. Families helped make a large terracotta planter with Jon before meeting the man in the red suit.

Once fired, the planter will eventually live in a new garden and outdoor play space, currently under development at the Centre.

We love this little snail made by one of the mums. It's now been attached to the pot along with all the other flowers, bugs and natural stuff.

More icy windows

Just cant get enough of the creative talents of jack frost! Check out our facebook page for a few more icy photos.

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Pottery birthday parties

We had the pleasure of hosting two 7 year olds birthday parties on Saturday. Tilly and friends had a lovely time sampling the potter's wheel and making terracotta nightlights in the morning, whilst Sarah's group joined us for 1.5hrs of clay fun in the afternoon.

If you would like us to host your special day please take a look at our birthday party page on our website.

Frozen clay @ Dinglewell Jnr School

Experience has taught us that leaving clay on the van overnight in sub-zero temperatures is not a recommended idea. However, faced with a 5.30am start and unable to get the 'Flying Potter' vehicle anywhere near the studio, Jon was forced to load up the night before.

Overnight temperatures of -6 resulted in him arriving at Dinglewell Junior school in Gloucester with x3 frozen solid blocks of clay, and 30 mins to 'showtime'!

The schools''s radiators were commandeered and amazingly, the clay was just about soft enough for the potter's wheel assembly. Phew!

The children's warm hands soon defrosted the rest of the ice crystals as they each made a Greek inspired coil pot. Jon took all 90 pots produced by theYr6 students back to the studio for firing & glazing. The pots will be returned to the school in the New Year.

Christmas clay fun @ Brearley

The annual 'community Christmas lunch' at Brearley Nursery School in Birmingham attracted lots of famillies.

The event offers parents & carers the opportunity to share a festive feast with staff and children in the Nursery. Amongst the other attractions, Jon 'the potter' offering participants the chance to make a Christmas clay candle holder to take away.

Blogging your way to success

Jon attended an fabulous seminar hosted by Business link at Worcester Rugby Club last Tuesday.

Susan Hallem was due to facilite the session, but couldn't make it on the day so sent one of her collegues, Ian, to talk about how to get the best from your blogging efforts. This was the second Susan Hallem presentation Jon had attended and the content and style of delivery, yet again, was top class!

Although we've been blogging for close on 2 years now the information presented by Ian gave us real food for thought and Jon certainly came away with lots of ideas to increase the effectiveness of the Eastnor Pottery blog.

Children's Pottery workshops in the Christmas Holidays

Looking for something for the kids to do in that 'funny' stretch between Christmas and New Year?

We are pleased to announce a whole day devoted to children's workshops on Wed 29th Dec 2010.

The seasonal theme is 'Yeti'.

Once the children have modelled their Yeti, complete with yeti dwelling and accessories, they will be encouraged to paint them with coloured slip. Anticipating a run on white, we've prepared a whopping 5 litres of the stuff.

1.5 hr sessions start at 11.30am and 2.00pm and are suitable for ages 4-12yrs. Places cost £14 for one, £13 per child for two and £12 per child for three or more places booked. Telephone (01531 633886) or email admin@eastnorpottery.co.uk booking essential.

Children's workshop dates for 2011.

T-pots & Toast racks - Weekend

Check out this exciting new workshop event!

Dig Your Own!

Check out this exciting new workshop event!

Teambuilding

Dates and details attached!

Potter's Wheel Workshop - Weekend

Dates and details attached!

Potter's Wheel Workshop - One Day

Dates and details attached!

Nature in Clay - Weekend

Check out this exciting new workshop event!

Hen Parties

Dates and details attached!

Clayplay

Dates and details attached!

Clay Modelling Taster Sessions

Check out this exciting new workshop event.

Children's School Holiday Pottery Sessions

Dates and details attached!

Children's Birthday Parties & Special Occasion Workshops

Dates and details attached!

A Pair of Potters

Jon spent a lovely day at the studio with a young couple from Birmingham who braved the arctic conditions to make pots in Eastnor. They had been inspired to try the potter's wheel by a Channel 4 TV programme - Kirsty Allsop's 'Homemade Homes'.

Jon set them up in a smaller room at the front of the Pottery with plenty of winter sunshine pouring in the window. The lighting made for some great photos.

Pottery Party

Check out this wonderful 'spider in a bath' made by a young participant at a recent birthday party. Admittedly she had a little help from Dad- who, judging by his creative talents, should definitely give up the day job! We are indebted to Mum, who posted a review of proceedings on our Google Places page - please follow the link to see what she had to say.

Ellen's Party Pieces

Look at these lovely, shiny critters, fresh from the kiln. They were produced by Ellen and her friends at her pottery Birthday party, here at Eastnor Pottery.

Evesham Nursery School

The children were presented with a simple activity based upon rolling clay coils. As they produced their snakes they were encouraged to 'draw' with them, arranging them in patterns and formations. Coloured slip was then painted onto the creations and the masterpieces were then left to dry.

Brearley & Teviot Nursery & Children's Centre

Jon was pleased to be back at the nursery this week, exploring the learning potential of working with clay.

The staff provide a vibrant and creative environment for the children to learn about the world with lots of opportunities catering for all learning styles. Important questions are raised, investigated and acted upon.

As it was the first time Jon had met the September intake - he presented the yellow room with a large lump of freshly defrosted, very sticky, clay - dumped in the middle of the table. Whilst the children squidged, rolled and flattened clay they talked about what they were making. Here's just a few examples of what the clay transformed into:-

a rainbow, lollipops, snowmen, cakes, candles, helicopters, cheese, chocolate, Spiderman, mountains, moustaches, grass, fire, fireworks and (my favourite), hair butter!

Jon will be visiting regularly throughout the rest of the academic year.

Withington Tots

Jon worked with parents and children at Withington Children's Centre in Herefordshire. Participants created a 'tree of hands' - each family made hand-prints pushed into leaf shaped clay tiles.

Once assembled, the tree will remain in the centre until the offspring start school - only then will the parents then be able to claim their tile, leaving space for the new intake of potters to add their leaf.

Brrrrr!

A week of snow and sub zero temperatures didn't deter the flying potter from his duties. Jon led workshop sessions in Herefordshire, Worcestershire and Birmingham this week, although it was pretty cold back at base. Check out this gorgeous pattern produced by the frost on the inside one of the pottery windows.