One of eight lovely gargoyle wall planters produced by Holyoakes Field PRU, ready for delivery back to the school.

On completion of residencies I ask schools and venues to complete an evaluation questionnaire.

Q:Did the project live up to expectations?

A:Totally! The whole week was fantastic – the children and staff were engaged and learning. Our children are difficult to engage but they were absorbed by the whole process and worked well the entire week. You could have spent a month here and it wouldn’t have been enough!

Over the last weekend in March, teachers and teaching assistants attended an Early Years Outdoor Conference at Leighswood Primary School in Walsall. The event included lots of different activities, such as storytelling in a Tepee, walking through the woods with a forest ranger, using tools, and risk taking. Staff were encouraged to evaluate their experience of the conference by creating two giant terracotta owls – Each one made up of individual ‘feathers’ illustrating the teachers take on the day. Gemma was on hand to facilitate the creativity and help construct the birds. Once the owls are dried and fired they will be flying back home to Leighswood Primary…

The clay gets absolutely everywhere and participants on our throwing workshops often report finding the stuff weeks later, in places they would never have dreamed! Finger nails are well and truly on the front line, harbouring great wads of clay and generally getting in the way. Some women have, after repeated pot collapse, lopped their talons off in a flurry of potter’s wheel rage. Others adopt a ‘knuckle’ technique for drawing the clay up.

With so many women passing through the pottery, the nail issue is not one that’s going to go away!! Check out our previous hen party workshops: Amanda’s Hen Party – https://eastnorpottery.co.uk/blog/2009_09_01_archive.html , Miranda’s Hen Party and Penny’s Hennyhttps://eastnorpottery.co.uk/blog/2009_07_01_archive.html.


Jon the Potter’s services were required at the official opening of the refurbished Widemarsh Children’s Centre, in Hereford. Over four hundred families made kites, watched magic shows, listened to stories and of course took part in Jon’s fabulous clay workshops. At the end of the day Jon and the participants had produced three fantastic collaborative fish. Once the creatures have been dried, fired and returned to the centre, they will live in the outside area, for families to discover and enjoy.


It always gives me great pleasure to be back at the St Thomas Children’s Centre. This time I enjoyed working with families at the Centre’s hugely popular ‘Stay and Play’ session. The gang were painting pebbles, so we all had a go at producing pebble pots to put them in.

I’m always glad to have help clearing up at the end of the session… This young participant cleared up all the clay, tools and water into this inverted kettle drum – what a superstar!