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clay pots made on potter's wheel course at eastnor pottery

Decisions decisions!

If you attend one of our brilliant one day potter’s wheel courses, you’ll be encouraged to select your favourite pot or two to be fired, glazed and dispatched a few weeks after your session. The ones you don’t keep are wedged* and recycled ready for the next course. Participants make oodles of pots throughout the day so the selective process is often difficult but valuable exercise. Once the wheat has been separated from the chaff, the quality shines out, highlighting the rapid development of confidence and skill developed over the day.

Here are some pots that made the final cut:

terracotta pots made by participants on a one day potter's wheel course at eastnor potteryclay pots made on potter's wheel course at eastnor pottery

 

 

…..And some that didn’t

clay sculpture of rejected wet pots on a pottery course at eastnor pottery

*wedged – refers to the preparation of clay ready for throwing on the potter’s wheel. The clay is hand kneaded to an even consistency and all the air is pushed out ensuring a tip top material, perfect for making quality vessels.

a ball of freshly thrown pots assembled into a sculpture

a ball of freshly thrown pots assembled into a sculpture

You get to make tonnes and tonnes of pots on our one day potter’s wheel course – way too many to fire and glaze.

At the end of the session we ask participants to choose their favourite 2-3 pots for the kiln, the rest get ‘recycled’.

Occasionally, participants are drawn to the pile of soft, rejected pots and a certain amount of re-modelling goes on! Jeff couldn’t resist the draw of the slops pile and the creative possibilities of re-working it. The result reminds me of something though…cant quite put my finger on it!?

 

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childrens hands in wet squidgy clay at cheltenham science festival 2019

childrens hands in wet squidgy clay at cheltenham science festival 2019Under normal circumstances (remember them!?) we’d have been up to our eyeballs in clay at the brilliant Maker Shack as part of Cheltenham Science Festival.

We’ve been involved in the Makershack since its inauguration in 2017. Last year we encouraged visitors to make a press molded brick, using real brick clay from Coleford Brick and Tile Company based in the Forest of Dean.

The bricks were assembled into a giant castle and we worked with nearly 10,000 people over the x6 days of the festival! – that’s a shed load of bricks! The sheer volume of visitors meant we had to build a fresh structure each day, deconstructing the building at the close and re-claiming the material for the next morning.

Athough the Makershack was primarily aimed at Primary school aged students – (and man, there must have been very few Gloucestershire schools who didn’t visit the show), on Friday night grown-ups got to play with the technology in a special after-hours session between 8pm and 10pm.

Although it’s full-on, we love the #makershack and look forward to sharing the scientific benefits of engaging with clay, with festival visitors in 2021.

pile of rejected pots at the end of a potter's wheel workshop at eastnor pottery

pile of rejected pots at the end of a potter's wheel workshop at eastnor pottery

Did you know that clay is infinitely recyclable? It’s been on the earth some 66 million years drying out and re-hydrating unchanged in nature. It’s only when it’s fired in the kiln it makes an irreversible change. Pottery or ceramic is probably one of the most permanent and durable materials known to man. Once they are out the kiln, they are out there forever!

It’s one of the reasons we ask our one day and weekend potter’s wheel course participants to be selective of their freshly made booty. At the end of the workshop, participants get to choose up to three creations to be fired and glazed. Surplus pots are ceremonially plucked from their resting places for recycling.

Must say it’s not very often we get such a neat pile of rejected pots! #neatlyfolded

festival punters at Lakefest 2019 make clay pots on the potter's wheel with the flying potter from eastnor

festival punters at Lakefest 2019 make clay pots on the potter's wheel with the flying potter from eastnor

How we miss those force 10 gusts and torrential downpours of a week ago!!!!

Despite the challenging conditions we had a ball and met some pretty fab people and aspiring potter’s.

Well done indeed to everybody who made it to the potting tent. It was a pleasure and a privilege to work with you all. Such a lovely, family friendly event!

More festival pics right here.

@lakefestuk 2020 takes place 13th – 16th August.