Autumn Gardening Show 2010

Jon has been providing pottery workshops for the Three Counties Agricultural Society for the best part of a decade. Over the years, a loyal following of clay enthusiasts has developed. Participants seek out the 'Eastnor Pottery' stand with increasing regularity. There are the Spring Gardening groupies, the Three Counties fans and of course the Autumn Gardening Show fanatics! Some punters make a B-line for the Pottery tent at all three events!

This year families helped to construct a giant collaborative apple and pear. Once they're fired we'll pop some photos up on our Facebook page.

Smooth Transition

Washwood Heath Nursery School in Birmingham, has an excellent approach to help the new intake of some 180 children and their parents ease into school life. Creative activities are offered to parents in the school hall, whilst their offspring settle in the adjacent classroom. So far they have been woodworking, felt-making and for the next few weeks, working with Jon making pots on the wheel. The activities are designed to alleviate anxiety with the advantage of parents being never too far away to console the inconsolable!

Jon and the nursery staff were struck by the creative talents of assembled parents, particularly the intricate, decorative skills of some of the participants.

Queen of Hearts

Sarah was busy this week producing 220 clay hearts (thank heavens for heart shaped biscuit cutters!) This was not a job we would have usually taken on, but a friend in need had contacted us out of desperation with a very tight deadline. Once fired, glazed and individually named, the tiles will act as table place settings at a wedding reception.

More Baby Photos

Jon spent another pleasant morning with new parents and their children at the St Thomas Children's Centre. These exploratory sessions give the children their first clay experience - sampling texture, temperature and squidgyness of the raw material. Take a look at the previous St Thomas Babies entry.

Jasmine's Birthday Party

Jasmine, friends and family enjoyed a double birthday celebration at the studio. Jasmine reached the grand old age of 6 whilst Nan was 78 years young!

All the party goers had a go on the potter's wheel as well as making 'Owl and Pussycat' models. Nan, who's a bit of an artist herself produced a fabulous cereal bowl on the wheel. Celebrate here!

Joseph's Pottery Party

Joseph and friends celebrated his 7th birthday party at Eastnor Pottery by creating 'Colourful Critters' - hand modelled animals of their choice. The children painted their creations there and then with coloured slip.

We'll dry, fire and glaze the 'Critters' ready for collection in 2-3 weeks time.

Eastnor Pottery's fabulous children's partys.

Gargoyle Planters

At the beginning of August, Jon and work experience student Sam spent a week in Eastnor Castle's grounds working with visitors. The outcome; five terracotta planters encrusted with wonderfully ugly gargoyles and masks.

Those of you that took part in the workshops and are unable to view the pieces in the dry cleaner's window in the centre of Ledbury, please take a look at our Facebook page for images of the pots.

James Brindley Clock

The majority of Eastnor Pottery's educational work is concerned with process rather than product - the emphasis on the journey rather than the destination. However, fired ceramic is an incredibly durable material and Jon, Sarah and Gemma are often called upon to enable a finished fired outcome.

The sense of shared and personal pride gleaned from a successfully executed and installed work of art is a powerful thing. Take a look at this fabulous wall clock produced by Jon, the staff, and children at James Brindley School in Birmingham.

A Valued Project

Kingsland Primary School in Herefordshire is a Church of England establishment with a strong Christian ethos at the heart of it's teaching and pastoral care. Love, thankfulness and peace are just three of eleven core values taught to the children.

The head teacher and art coordinator were keen to symbolise these central themes in a collaborative artwork to be installed in the schools reception area.

Jon had previously worked with the school in 2003 and the afore mentioned project offered an opportunity to engage him again as an artist in residence.

After much discussion and idea crunching, a concept, oozing with symbolism was hatched: The values would flow from a jug mounted on the wall, in amongst a swirling mass of tiled images and words. As the patchwork of tiles cascade down the wall they would envelope a globe, cloaking the semi sphere and figures on the surface, flooding and protecting, before heading out into the wider community....Phew!

The children rose to the challenge of interpreting the values magnificently, modelling stories and symbols onto their flattened clay. By home time, all 140 pupils had made and painted their contribution and the piece was complete.

More Clay Babies

One of our youngest participants grapples with the grey stuff!

Jon was back at the fabulous St Thomas Children's Centre in Birmingham, working with a new parent group. Judging by the expression we reckon this young potter thoroughly enjoyed making his first pot.

Weekend Pottery Course

Here are a couple of photos from the potter's wheel workshop held at the weekend. The small number of participants meant lots of individual attention. All three mastered the technique within the first hour - producing some sizable and brilliantly executed pots by the close.


Visit http://www.eastnorpottery.co.uk/pages/eastnorpotteryadultworkshops.htm for more details of our one day and weekend pottery courses.

Family workshop

These guys were on holiday in the area and fixed up a 1.5 hr coil pot workshop with us to while away a rainy afternoon.

The family had also been to Monkland Cheese Dairy in the morning and were very complimentary about the visitor experience. On their recommendation we took a family trip and were thoroughly impressed too. Great demo & fantastic cheese! Well worth a visit.

Big owl little owl

A couple of fine collaborative owls drying at the studio. They were made at two separate community workshops held over the Summer and led by Gemma. (The birds are constructed from the same clay but are at different stages of drying.)