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Pottery - Weekend with Laurel Keeley - SOLD OUT

Thursday, 12 January 2023 17:00
Sunday, 15 January 2023 14:00

Coombe Farm Studios (map)

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This is a lovely intensive weekend pottery residential course (you can also attend as a non-resident if you live locally or want to book your own accommodation independently) with the internationally recognised potter Laurel Keeley. It is her only weekend course with us in 2023 and Laurel’s courses get booked up very quickly so advanced booking recommended.

Laurel works with coloured slips and drawn line in stoneware and porcelain clays, with glazes and oxides applied, often enhanced with Gold Lustre.

The slab bowls, plates and pots are vehicles for figurative designs of fish and fields, rivers, canals and glimpses of the world through windows. More recently she has been working with images of gardens and landscape, her method informed by painting.

Having exhibited her work at Coombe for over 20 years this new course is a natural progression to introducing Laurel’s work to an increasingly wider audience. With the number of students per course kept deliberately low (max 8) to enable a high level of tuition for participants of all skill levels, Laurel’s courses regularly sell out.

The course is designed to allow both experienced potters and beginners exploring clay for the first time to do slab and coil work, as well as throw pots on the wheel. During this course there will be a focus on ceramics for outside spaces be it a garden, patio, balcony or driveway..however it’s not essential to make work for outside if you would prefer to make pieces for the home that are inspired by the garden that’s fine also. Students will work in stoneware with coloured slips and drawn line. The scale of Laurel’s ceramics ranges from tiny pieces that fit in the palm of the hand, to coil built forms a metre high and students will have the chance to make and fire, both small and large-scale work according to their own ambition.

Laurel graduated with BA Hons in English and American Arts and an MA in Commonwealth Literature. She studied ceramics at Exeter College of Art and Design and has been working as a potter for 30 years, selling work throughout the UK in selected galleries and exhibitions. Laurel has received two Arts Council England Major Awards for her work and is a member of The Devon Guild of Craftsmen. Her ceramic pieces are owned worldwide. This is a unique opportunity to work alongside and interact with Laurel through her work.

There will be a maximum of 6 people on this course and Laurel will teach on Friday & Saturday from 9.30am-5pm and on Sunday from 9.30am-1pm. The pottery is also available for continued work in the evenings and early mornings.

“What a wonderful course, Laurel is such a kind and generous tutor, so experienced and so generous in sharing her skills. An absolute gem of a weekend. I can’t wait to come back for more.”

— Julie, Course participant

MATERIALS LIST FOR THIS COURSE

If you have them, bring pottery tools, otherwise we will provide a basic selection. You will need a sketchbook and drawing materials. Please bring sources of inspiration such as photographs, magazine cuttings and drawings.

There will be a charge of £5 per kilo of clay to include materials and firing to stoneware temperature in an electric kiln. Finished work can be sent on for a small charge,