Community Afternoons

Gentle monthly creative workshops for all 

Monday 29 September, 2-4pm. At the Core, St Ives Community Orchard

Tiles & Creation Station: Decorate a tile to adorn the forthcoming Learning & Production Studios. The tiles will take inspiration from motifs which recurred across the work of Bernard Leach, wider Leach Pottery’s history, reference local landmarks and tell the story of the St Ives community. Take part in a collection of clay-based activities including a clay banquet.

Monday 13 October, 2-4pm. At the Core, St Ives Community Orchard

Takahon & Drawing: Discover the ancient Japanese printmaking technique of Takuhon. Takuhon creates detailed 3D relief prints of objects by moulding thin, damp Japanese paper over them and then dabbing oil-based or water-based ink onto the surface with tampo pads (ink daubers). 

Monday 17 November, 2-4pm. At the Core, St Ives Community Orchard

Lino Printing: Make a collection of pot inspired lino prints by inking and layering cut lino.

Monday 8 December, 2-4pm. At the Core, St Ives Community Orchard

Slip Up: Experiment with the relaxing process of creating paste paper to make your own wrapping paper and winter decorations. Take inspiration from slip decorated pottery form the Leach Pottery collection.

Monday 19 January, 2-4pm. At the Core, St Ives Community Orchard

Kiln Tea Lights: Use hand-building technique to sculpt a kiln-shaped tea light holder.  

Workshops, hosted by Ellen, Nikki & Jenny, start promptly at 2pm and run until 4pm.

Who are these workshops for?

Anyone who has attended one of our community partnership workshops last the three years (this including groups such as Promas Carers, the Wednesday Wanderers, ISight Cornwall, Social prescribing, Man Down, Penwith Wellbeing Services, Mud Club and local memory cafes). Carers and support workshops welcome too.

&

Anyone 18 years and over who lives locally who would benefit from attending a creative, supportive and gentle workshop in St Ives.

Community Afternoons are free and drop-in. You are welcome to email Ellen Love at ellen.love@leachpottery.com to let us know you are coming but otherwise you are welcome to drop-in. We expect to be able to welcome everyone who turns up but in the event of over attendance, priority will be given to those who have emailed ahead. You are welcome to attend just one session – there is not commitment to attending all of them!

Travelling & Parking

About the Core

The CORE is an environmentally sustainable eco-centre at the base of the  30 acres of the Community Orchard and Nature Reserve. It’s a 5 minute walk from the Leach Pottery in St Ives. https://www.stivesorchard.co.uk/st-ives-core-building/

Core Parking

Parking for the St Ives Community Orchard is very limited, with the CORE building having a prior arrangement space for those with limited mobility (please flag if you need Disabled parking arranged.) Most visitors are encouraged to use the larger car park at St John-in-the-Fields or there are few spaces on the surrounding roads.

We look forward to welcoming back the Community Studio to the Leach Pottery when we move into the new studios!

Join the Community Studio to gain more confidence when working with clay, from working on the wheel to hand building. Over the course of 3 workshops on fortnightly Tuesday afternoons make a body of work and choose a piece to get fired.

Community Studio is a fortnightly afternoon workshop for locals who have been part of the Leach Pottery Community programme (including the Social Prescribing workshops, EyeSight Cornwall, Promas Carers and the Wednesday Wanderers) to develop creative clay skills independently from the group and in a supportive environment. The group is taught to 6 participants.

Project in Focus: Recently the Community Afternoon participants were introduced to developing glazes. While the group have worked with clay before, this was the next step in furthering their understanding of pottery. The group started with the Leach 4 3 2 1 transparent glaze recipe and then added glaze stains in increments, followed by an experimental approach. Once the test firing was complete the participants were able to choose their preferred glaze for their pots.

The current course is fully booked. Ages 26+

Please contact ellen.love@leachpottery.com to see if you are eligible to join. If you run a community group who you think would benefit from the Community Studio evenings please get in touch to find out more.