Base your design on a Favourite Roast Dinner from your past. This can be very broad and encompass people, places or an activity.

Watch the Great Pottery Throw down

Get some inspiration for your design by going back to the source. You can catch up on Channel 4. It is Series 7 Episode 1. You can also watch HERE online (though you have to register).

Make your design

Make some sketches or find ideas on the internet. If you don’t have time, at least come to class with a concept and you can develop it as you work.
We are using white clay. Your set will be decorated with coloured slips and underglazes. (I’ll discuss those with you in Class 2) but you can also add texture with stamps, carving, and modelling. Be creative and don’t be afraid to be silly and have fun!

Don’t worry, I’ll guide you through your build and the class will work on them at the same time.

5 piece Roast Dinner Set

Pinch pot salt and pepper shakers

You’ll join 2 pinch pots to make the hollow forms for your salt and pepper shakers. Remember, there will be a cork in the bottom and it will protrude approximately 1/2 cm. The base will need a foot or a hollowed out area. Be sure to include this in your design.

Coiled Mustard Pot with Lid

Have some fun with this – make a creative knob on your lid.

Slab-built Gravy Jug

Although you all will make the same basic form, it can be made your own with a creative handle, scalloped edges or modelling.

Hump mold dish

The dish is made on a hump mold. Clay is rolled out into a slab and then formed around the mold. You can add a decorative edge, stamps, handles or even some modelling like the little dog Dave added to his dish.

Let me know if you have any questions!

Have you been watching the Great Pottery Throwdown? It’s a good season. There are some very talented potters and (happily) not too many tears.

In one episode, the potters made a 6 piece Roast Dinner Set including a plate, a gravy boat, dish, salt and pepper pots and mustard pot. The forms and decoration were inspired by childhood memories of a favourite Roast Dinner. One potter’s theme was a day at the beach. Another’s was a walk on the Downs. They were great and really stimulated the potters’ creativity.

Call me a copy-cat, but that’s what we’ll be doing in my courses beginning w/c 26 February. It’s a lovely project for both beginners or more experienced potters. Every set will bring back memories and tell a story. 

 If you haven’t already registered, please do so now!

Candle Holders, Trophy Cups or Goblets

In this project, we’ll be making columnar pieces with a mix of building and decorating techniques. You can create as you go and really use your imagination. It’s a terrific project for those of you who love modelling, decorating, and building. Have a look here for inspiration and register for a course!

Bird Feeders

We’ll also be making bird feeders. These will primarily be made with coils but you can use other building techniques if you prefer. They can be as simple or as complicated as you like. They’ll be finished just as the birds start getting hungry and they’ll love them!

Porcelain is the queen of clays. When thin, it can be nearly translucent. Thicker, it has a fine and very hard surface that is different than any other clay.

However, porcelain is also tricky to work with. It has a very different consistency than other clays. It’s sticky. It warps. It cracks. Getting really good at porcelain requires a lot of knowledge and practice.

Happily, I think I’ve found some projects that will work for even us beginners. It may be sticky, warpy, and cracky, but we should get to work with porcelain too! Wonky porcelain is better than no porcelain.

Using slab and pinching techniques, we’ll make Christmas-ish table decorations, tea lights, spoons and small dishes.

Embrace the challenge of working with porcelain in this short course

This is a one session short course, offered on two days. I’ll glaze everything and have it ready for you to pick up in two weeks…just in time for Christmas gifts.

Dates

Tuesday, 28 November 6:30-9:30

Wednesday, 29 November 1:30-4:30

Price

£50 for 3-hour class.

Please register by 20 November. I know it is rather late to advertise this class and I’m not sure how much uptake I’ll have. Classes that don’t reach my minimum number of students will be cancelled on 22 November. Please don’t pay until 23 November (or pay in class).

Please note:

Because porcelain is challenging, this class is only for students who have previously taken one of my courses. New students, please register for a course in 2024!

Music Box Process

October 2023 course students are making music boxes. Here is an overview of how the music box will develop over the coming weeks.

1: Preparation
Students’ Homework for the next class:

• Design:
  Look for inspiration on my Pinterest site HERE.
  
• Template This determines the size and shape of your box. Cut it out from card or heavy paper.
  • The clay shrinks approx 10%. So add 10% to all of the final dimensions for your box
  • The box needs to be big enough to hold the mechanism
  • If you aren’t sure or don’t have time, I will have a ready-made template for a box that is 15x11x9cm.
  • These are the final dimensions for my music box. The templates would have been 10% larger than the final dimensions.
  • Notice that my lid was made separately with a pinch pot. You can also make a cylinder for the entire form and then cut it in two to make the lid
    

• You will decorate the box using:
  Underglazes: These are the small pots of paint you used on your mouse.
  Decals – Choose from:
  – Existing workshop stock
  – Custom made: If you want a more personal image, You will need to email me a good photo of it. The size of the decal will depend on the size of your box. We can talk about that in class. I will order the decals. There will be a small extra charge for this.

2. Make the box

Boxes are made from white earthenware clay using slabs, modelling, and pinch pot techniques.

3: bisque fire

4: Decorate with underglazes and apply clear glaze

5: Glaze fire

6: Apply decals

7: Decal fire

8: Insert the mechanism and let the music begin!

Clay Bottles, Milk bottles, wine bottles, shampoo bottles. A bottle is not just a bottle.

In our next class, you’ll learn how to coil and make clay bottles. You can coil the entire bottle or (if you like) you could use the different techniques you’ve learned in previous classes.

You’ll have better success with your clay bottle if you sketch it in advance.

Sometimes it’s hard to know where to begin. Have a look around your house for ideas or look at my Pinterest page. Be creative and have fun with it.

Maximum bottle height is 20cm

Decorating your clay bottles

In the last week, you’ll decorate your bottle with wax resist and coloured slips and underglazes. Here are some examples of finishes that are similar to the finish you could achieve with this technique. Come with an idea and we can discuss how to do it.

For our main project in the next course, we’ll be building tiny houses. They are a joy to make and can be used as tea light holders or as planters for succulents.

Use a variety of Hand-building techniques

In this project you’ll create a template for your tiny house. Then it will be slab built with texturing to replicate the look of different building materials. Windows, doors, and stairs can be created with stamps and sculptural details can also be added.

Texturing makes the architecture look realistic

• Use Rollers to make your clay slab look like a brick or stone wall.
• Imitate stucco with a bit of burlap.
• Create the texture of a Sussex tile-hung cottage with a grouting tool

With the right texturing, you can make a stone castle, a Victorian church, a Bauhaus block, or even a copy of your own house. Then, add some tiny sculptural details like a tiny cat or some tiny window boxes. OMG!

Join the April Course

Courses begin w/c 17 April, 2023
Register HERE

Love and pottery,
Julie

Based on the techniques used in 19th Century money banks, this inspired work was made by students in the January 2023 Pottery Course.

English slipware money banks were generally decorated with chickens or other birds. Often a child’s name and birthdate were inscribed with sgraffito.

Personal creativity took students from money banks to vases to what-nots to why-nots!

Using earthenware terracotta clay, the forms were made by joining pinch pot elements. The brief was to decorate them with swags, sprigs or other sculptural elements. When leather hard, the pieces were covered with white slip and then further decorated with sgraffito. After the bisque firing, they were glazed with a honey glaze which softened the colour of the white slip and deepened the red of the terracotta.

If you’re like me, the last weeks of winter last a bit too long. Although the snowdrops are blooming, it can still be pretty dreary. I cheer myself up by taking more walks and making more pottery.

Spring is on the way

I’ve got a cheering schedule of projects for the March-April course. To celebrate the return of dawn chorus, our mini sculpture is inspired by the work of Guy Taplin. He’s an Essex artist who uses raw materials from the coastline such as weathered timber and driftwood to create hand carved bird sculptures. This man knows his birds. Although his forms, colourings and markings are greatly simplified, there is no mistaking that his plover is a plover or sanderling is a sanderling. (not that I’m an Ornithologist!) We’ll be making birds from pinch pots and as always, every bird will be different. Whether by intent or accident, you’ll make a robin, a tit or other bird and then paint it in the Guy Taplin way.

Come with a few friends

Pottery is a great friend activity because you can chat and catch up while you’re working. Plus, friends are basically a mutual admiration society – and pottery gives you reasons to compliment each other!

Courses begin w/c 27 February

Register HERE and start Spring 2023 with some new pottery.