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  • Writer's pictureDanielle Hopkinson

Come on in and get Creative

We are delighted to be back up and operating fully now, and have enjoyed so many great workshops lately with lots more to come from trusted tutors and new ones - we look forward to welcoming them, and you, to get creative!

We've got lots of news but we don't want to bombard you. We've got a whole diary full of 'notes-to-self' to ensure that we write one of these a month to keep you up to date with what's going on in our creative space.


Let's start with a quick round-up of what we've been doing since Christmas, and an overview of what we've got coming up:

Pottery

Let's start with news of the clay room: our new set-up and resident potter. Henry Moore, he of TV's Great Pottery Throwdown fame, has become so enamoured with our new clay room, drying room and kiln, that he's moved his whole operation to our creative space and is using his time building up stock, organising himself and generally creating ceramic masterpieces.

In between times, he's teaching workshops for you lucky people.


We now have four potters' wheels, a fabulous kiln, a drying room and wash-down/clean-up room - if you're lucky enough to do a workshop with us, we'll show you around the place. It's really looking rather professional and super!


Here are some examples of work that's been created by Henry's students that have signed up for workshops over the last few months:

We've also asked people what they want to learn and at what level and, you'll see from our workshop list that we've got lots of ceramic variety for all kinds of budding potters:

  • A four-week evening class in throwing, mark making and glazing for all abilities (in both March and June)

  • A 'make a teapot in a morning' workshop

  • Hand building pottery planters

We've had some great feedback from guests at Henry's workshops. People who have learned a little pottery before have told us that they've not experienced the level of detail that Henry teaches. He really likes to explain about the materials you're working with, and the way they behave, in order that you'll understand how to approach a task. We're enjoying having Henry with us and look forward to lots more pottery fun!

Glass

As usual, we're hosting our own stained glass weekend workshops for beginners as well as fused glass flowers in April (just 2 places left!). Stained glass classes tend to get full up fairly quickly so do keep an eye out for the dates you'd like and book your place early. Currently we've only got one place left in March and 4 places left in April. We do try to do a weekend monthly - unless we've got a particularly busy month.

Jewellery

The amazing Andrea Wright held a workshop in January making silver rings with an organic pebble detail - the class was fun, relaxing and as creative as ever - if you missed that, and also missed out on this Saturday's Stacking Rings workshops, why not make and stamp a silver cuff bracelet with Andrea in March (it's Mothers' Day shortly after the class... just saying!)

Other Workshops

In printmaking, we've had Dale Devereux-Barker teaching both Silk Screen Printing and Vitreous Enamelling. Dale's back with us on 13th March for Screen Printing and there's just one place left! Keep your eyes peeled for new enamelling dates too!


STOP PRESS! The brilliant master craftsman Wayne Tanswell joins us on Wednesday next week (2nd March), to hold a whole-day Signwriting workshop. Due to circumstances beyond our guests' control, we've had to transfer two people to the next class and have now have two free places. If you fancy learning an incredible traditional art from one of very few professionals around, get yourself booked on to the workshop now!


Finally, we've got two new workshops coming up this month, both from amazing tutors and both completely unique:

Historic Ink Making is coming up next Saturday (5th March) from 10am to 1pm and is being taught using traditional materials and methods. Any calligraphy or history buffs out there should enjoy this workshop - it's a unique opportunity to also handle original manuscripts dating back to the 15th Century, make your own quill pen and seal your letter.


Botanical Illustration with a close-up twist is from tutor Betty Adamou - she's a keen macro lens botanical photographer and loves looking closely at the world around her. Be prepared to see nature as you wouldn't usually view it, and create and take home a set of your beautifully created pictures, prints and bookmarks to keep or share as gifts!


So, that's us - there's lots of workshops going on - our building is now new and improved and just great to work in. Our creative space is, as always available to hire out when we're not hosting workshops - please do get in touch if you'd like to chat about something you need.


If you're a tutor and would like to offer our audience an interesting workshop, please do fill in our form and we can chat through some ideas.


And if you're someone that loves learning, by all means let us know if you'd like to see something in our workshop list that's not included right now. We have a great band of tutors but we've got access to lots more creative talent - let us know and we'll see what we can do.


As always - stay safe and see you at a workshop sometime soon!


Danielle and Ian

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