POTTERY & POETRY, Centering. 5 day course with Laurel Keeley & Alice Oswald.

Sunday 4 October 2026 17:00
Friday 9 October 2026 14:00

Coombe Farm Studios (map)

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A five day immersive course on pottery and poetry. This is a new course, conceived as a way to support you to develop your own voice in your ceramic work and/or to give shape to your poetry.

It is a course suitable for either poets or potters, or for any of you that might be doing both.

During the week you will work with two professionals in their field, Laurel Keeley in ceramics and the poet Alice Oswald

As you move though the week the words, poems or fragments of writing could find their way onto pots, or the poetry might be a way into the pots, shaping the kind of pots you want to make, and/or both. If your starting point is as a poet, how might your writing take form in another object?

We are delighted to have the two incredible tutors for this course.

Laurel Keeley, has taught ceramics at Coombe for over a decade and is an internationally recognised maker and professional potter for over 45 years, exhibiting regularly in galleries and exhibitions throughout the UK. Laurel will be teaching the technical elements of the making with clay, enabling you to make simple forms, thrown, coiled or with slabs depending on levels of experience. Laurel also has a BA in English and American Arts and an MA in American and Commonwealth Literature.

Alice Oswald was trained as a classicist at New College, University of Oxford. Revered as a major poet her honors include prestigious awards like the T.S. Eliot Prize and the Griffin Poetry Prize. She is the author of 11 collections of poetry. Her first collection of poetry, The Thing in the Gap-Stone Stile (1996), received a Forward Poetry Prize for Best First Collection. She often works in book-length projects and is known for her interests in gardening, ecology, and music. Her second book, Dart (2002), was the outcome of years of primary and secondary research into the history, environment, and community along the River Dart that flows less than a mile from Coombe.

Alice and Laurel will work together on this course with each day providing moments for writing, reflection and making with clay.

This course has been designed for those with some existing experience in working with clay. You do not need to have experience of writing poetry but some history of reading and appreciating poetry is desired.
Sunday
5-7pm Residents arrive
7.00pm non residents arrive
7.00pm Welcome Drinks
8.00pm Dinner
Monday-Thursday
8.30am Breakfast for residents
First session 9.30am-1.00pm
1.00pm Lunch
2.00pm-5.00pm tuition resumes
7pm Dinner for Residents
Friday
8.30am breakfast for residents
9.30am final tuition session
1.00pm Lunch
2.00pm Course closes
Please bring an apron, and any pottery tools you have that you like to work with. Please also bring a sketchbook and a notebook for writing.
Our address is TQ6 0JA [What3words: What3words: fulfilled.exploring.branching] and we have plenty of free onsite parking. Trains > nearest station is Totnes then we can arrange lift shares or send taxi details. We are about 20 minutes from the station.
Min 6 max 12.
RESIDENTIAL
£1,023 + VAT - includes all accommodation, food, tuition, materials.
NON-RESIDENTIAL
£804 + VAT to include the above excluding accommodation, breakfast and dinner.
Residential and non-residential spaces available.
RESIDENTIAL
includes all your food, accommodation and tuition from arrival on Thursday evening through to departure after lunch on Sunday.
NON-RESIDENTIAL
Includes tuition, welcome drinks on Sunday night and all lunches.
NB Residents are not required to share bedrooms, but bathrooms are shared [we do not have any en suite rooms on site]. Seeaccommodationfor more info.