Pottery: Slab building & mark making in clay with Jean Crosbie

What You Will Learn

In this workshop you will learn about the process of creating slab built pottery, from preparing the stoneware clay and using formwork to obtain different shapes, to finishing and adding surface detail. 

The theme of this workshop is mark-making. On the day Jean will show you how to carve and imprint the clay and then express these marks with oxides or coloured slips. Jean will provide a variety of found objects for imprinting, and you are welcome to bring anything you would like to experiment with! Examples of things that work particularly well are seed heads, fine foliage, lace, mesh and fabrics etc.

Having experimented with mark-making, Jean will show you how to assemble your slab around a form to create a vessel. There will be a variety of sizes of forms for you to use.

At the end of the workshop, you will have two pots that will be labelled and left to dry out and be fired to a matt finish. These will be available for collection a few weeks later. We can arrange postage for a small fee.

What to bring

Everything you need for the workshop will be provided including aprons but please wear something you don’t mind getting dirty. Please be aware that pottery involves the use of sharp tools.

Skill Level

Beginners and improvers.

Number of places available

5

Your tutor for the day: Jean Crosbie

Jean Crosbie is a potter and textile artist based in Kent, UK. She has been a potter for over 20 years and has exhibited and sold her work at numerous locations across the south-east. With a focus on hand building, each piece is unique and incorporates abstract patterns in sgraffito and oxides using found objects for mark making.

A key theme in Jean’s work is botanical imprints and forms, such as poppy seed heads. She also sculpts and slab builds pots of varying scales for plants, where the plants become part of the piece themselves. Larger scale planters are filled with succulents and alpines with the textures of the plants and the clay forming a symbiotic relationship.

For more information on Jean and her work contact hello@knotworks.co.uk.

Schedule on the day

Please arrive at the studio between 9.30-9.45 ready for the workshop to begin promptly at 10am.

We will have a tea break in the morning and afternoon and stop for lunch at 1pm.

We will provide hot drinks and biscuits, but please bring your own lunch. There are several cafes and shops located nearby the studio on Southborough High Street where lunch can be purchased. We encourage students and tutors to have lunch together in the studio so we can all get to know each other!

Travel

High Brooms railway station is approx. 15 minutes walk from the studio and provides direct train links to London and the South East. There is a metered car park located 5 minutes walk from the studio, and on street parking is available.

Accessibility

The studio is on the first floor with no lift access. Please get in touch if you have any questions about access and we will be happy to chat about it in more detail and do what we can to accommodate you.

Cancellations & Covid Policy

Bookings for our workshops are non-refundable. Please check the dates and details above carefully before you confirm your booking.

If government restrictions dictate that we need to cancel the workshop for any reason due to Covid-19 we will refund the total cost of the workshop. When we are able to reschedule, we will offer first refusal to those who previously signed up.

Read Event Terms and Conditions here.