May Half-Term 2024: Young Potter’s Take Over
Explore the Leach Pottery through a series of activities and workshops across the old studios. Prepare your clay from scratch, direct the potters on the kick wheels as they throw pots, create your own hand-built pots and design and sketch a new collection of standard ware to display in the museum.
Participants of all ages are welcome to take part. All participants under 18 must be accompanied by an adult.
An overview of activities…
Wedging
Learn the technique of wedging and weighing clay in the room historically used by potters to prepare clay ahead of throwing on a wheel.
Making
Take inspiration from the pots made at the Leach pottery and hand build your own to display in the museum.
See a Potter at Work
See a potter throwing pots on a kick wheel. See how many pots the studio needs to make each day and tick it off the production chart.
Design your collection
Gather your ideas from the exhibition and sketch your own standard ware collection
Will my pots be fired?
The Young Potter’s Take Over focuses on the process of making and the forms used by potters. The activities are exploratory and playful and therefore outcomes won’t be fired but placed on display in the museum.
Date & Time: Tuesday 28 May, 10-1 & 2-4pm. Drop-in or Friday 31 May, 10-1 & 2-4pm. Drop-in.
Price: Free with museum entrance. Museum Entry is free to locals with TR26 and TR27 postcodes. You can sign up for your locals pass at the Museum entrance. Details of different entries can be viewed here.
Under 18s free.
No booking is required. Last admission to the Young Potter’s Take Over is 30mins before the session closure, 12.30pm & 3.30pm. The Young Potter’s Take Over is engaged with at the participant’s pace and can be covered in 30mins or more.
Polite Notice: No booking is required for the Young Potter’s Take Over but at busy times we will introduce a system of staggered entrance every 15 minutes to participants. Often, in an effort to avoid queues, participants arrive at the start of the event which ironically creates a busy spell first thing. With participants arriving at intervals across the day, waits are less likely and avoidable.
Other information:
We welcome little potters
Don’t be afraid to bring little ones. We understand we can be scary having little hands in museum spaces so we have a few things in place to make your visit as smooth as possible…
· Some of our activities are in outside spaces so little potters can run around
· We offer Sensory Bags to aid exploring the museum spaces with little ones too
· We have covered buggy parking space and seating in the museum.
· Bring a picnic to have in the museum garden
· Young Potter’s Take Over can be taken at your own pace and you can dip into as little or as much as you like
With a Local’s Pass you can always come back for free at a later time
