Studio Training Volunteer Placement
We currently do not have any upcoming placements; please keep an eye out for future opportunities.
Previous Studio Volunteers
Matilda Halley
February - August 2023
Matilda with some of the Studio potters at the Leach Pottery
Matilda traded places with Callum Trudgeon for six months and left Driving Creek Pottery in New Zealand to join the production team at the Leach Pottery in 2023. Matilda worked as a Studio Volunteer, hoping to improve her production skills, experience the flow of studio production in a bigger studio and to make some of her own pots in her free time.
She is from Tokomaru Bay on the East Coast of New Zealand and was fortunate to grow up around potters and craftspeople. As a child, she lived across the road from Helen Mason, the matriarch of studio pottery in New Zealand, who helped organise the first tours of Bernard Leach and Shoji Hamada to New Zealand.
Matilda started potting in Japan, where she first learnt about the Mingei philosophy and discovered the writings of Bernard Leach and Yanagi Soetsu, which have informed her journey since.
She apprenticed for German production potter Petra Meyboden in Coromandel, New Zealand where she developed an interest in wood firing with salt and soda. Matilda has since been based at Barry Brickell’s Driving Creek Railway and Pottery.
In the autumn of 2023 Matilda, having returned to Driving Creek, will put her new skills to work, assisting Callum Trudgeon in producing a new Driving Creek Standard Ware range.
Shannon Bartlett-Smith
October 2017-18
Shannon Bartlett-Smith. Photo by Charley Gaidoni
Shannon began working with clay while studying at Bristol School of Art. She was fortunate at Bristol to have mentors who were generous with their experience and helped her to begin her journey. Shannon moved to Cornwall and further developed her creative skills while studying Contemporary Crafts at Falmouth University. As a part of her course, she had the opportunity to explore many different mediums and particularly thrived in the art of paper cutting and installation. However, her interest in ceramics never waned and she began volunteering on the weekends at the Leach Pottery, gaining valuable experience in studio production and an understanding of the Leach ethos. After graduating in 2015 with a BaHONs in Contemporary Craft, Shannon was shortlisted for the New Designers “Designer of the year, 2015” award. She went on to show her work in exhibitions including New Designers- One Year On and Paperscissors Book. In 2017, she had her first solo exhibition at LINLEY, Belgravia in London titled Journeys in Paper.
After Shannon’s success with her paper cut work, she decided it was time to return her focus to ceramics. She returned to the Leach Pottery in 2017 as a full time workshop volunteer. Being immersed in the production workshop has helped her to improve her throwing and decorating skills. Shannon has discovered a real passion for brushwork, which incorporates the design elements she enjoys in her paper-cut work with the tactile and practical aspects of working in clay.
Carson Culp
November 2016-17
Carson Culp: Studio Volunteer 2017
Carson Culp joined us in November 2016 from the USA. His relationship with clay started in Portland, Oregon where he was heavily involved with the ceramics community it offered. Working at the Multnomah Arts Center, Mudshark Studios, and Kelly Pottery allowed him to develop skills and experience he would have never achieved in an academic environment.
'My work is a reflection of place and tradition with being drawn to mainly functional forms that show balance and quality. Working with porcelain and traditional celadon glazes was developed during my apprenticeship at kelly Pottery and my love for atmospheric firing processes occured during my time spent with the wood fire community in Oregon. I have come to the Leach to gain a better understanding of what it takes to be a studio potter, focus on my craft, and eventually incorporate the traditions I am learning into my life's work.'
Cecilia Levratto
January - December 2016
Cecilia Levratto was a resident volunteer working in the Museum and Library, and with the Learning & Participation Officers throughout 2016. Born in Montevideo, Uruguay, Cecilia graduated in History, specializing in the study of cultural and artistic movements. During her residency she supported the Pottery’s exhibition and education programmes and catalogued the extensive library of books donated by Mary Wondrausch and the Emmanuel Cooper estate.
‘I discovered the work of Bernard Leach on a previous visit to the UK’ says Cecilia. ‘The more I learned about his work and philosophy the more fascinated I became, and now it is a pleasure to be working in the place where he and others created much of what I admire. I believe strongly in the social importance of museums and that the objects which were part of the human history, everyday objects, should be accessible to the general public.
‘Working here will give me invaluable experience in my chosen field, and by participating in various projects I hope I will be helping the Leach Pottery to maintain its excellence as a museum.’
Cecilia’s work with the Wondrausch and Cooper acquisitions is paving the way for a new public and online library resource which, it is hoped, will be available in early 2018.
Cecilia Levratto in the library at Beagle Cross. Photo by John Bedding
Lexie Macleod
May - October 2016
Lexie Macleod is from the Black Isle just north of Inverness in Scotland and is working in the Production Studio at the Leach Pottery for 6 months. Lexie graduated from Grays School of Art in Aberdeen in 2013 where she discovered her love of ceramics and since then she has developed her skills with potters on Orkney and in Cromarty, Scotland before heading to us in Cornwall.