The Leach Sessions: Throwing with Mark Hewitt
Improvers & Intermediate
Progressing Skills
Date and Time: Monday 15 - Tuesday 16 June, 10 - 4.
The Leach Sessions invite renowned international makers to share their approach with the wider Leach Pottery community. Each session offers a chance to learn directly from makers with a strong connection to material, process and tradition, while engaging with contemporary ways of making. The sessions create space for shared learning, conversation and hands-on making within the Leach Pottery’s working environment.
Overview
Across this 2-day workshop, Mark Hewitt will demonstrate how he makes thrown forms from smaller pots, such as mugs, to large planters. Through his series of demonstrations participants will gain insight into Mark’s techniques, then practice on wheels themselves under his guidance.
Mark will demonstrate throwing and decorating techniques and help participants in their own making practice. Mark hails from Stoke-on-Trent and apprenticed with Michael Cardew but has been living and potting in North Carolina for over four decades. He’s an accomplished and well-known potter who's exhibited internationally. It's a real treat to have him come to the Leach Pottery as he doesn’t often lead workshops, particularly not on our side of the pond!
Mark is known for his finely thrown, voluminous forms and slip decoration. He will demonstrate a range of shapes as well as some of his techniques for throwing large pots and some decorative techniques. Participants will have time on the wheel with hands on guidance to help improve their skills and explore slip decoration.
On Saturday night Mark will give an artist talk which all participants are welcome to attend at no additional cost, (More details to follow)
The course covers:
Basic clay preparation
Efficient throwing technique
Approaches to throwing larger
Decorative techniques with slips including slip trailing
Mark’s reflections:
Time has flown since 1976 when I first read “A Potter’s Book” while at university in Bristol, and soon thereafter began my journey to become a studio potter. I saw Leach, and Lucy Rie, at the opening of his retrospective at the V&A in 1977, and met him in St. Ives during my subsequent apprenticeship with Cardew, who’d been Leach’s first apprentice in the early 1920’s.
Having been brought up in Stoke-on-Trent, “The Potteries,” where my grandfather and father had been Directors of Spode, this trajectory was unexpected, and it’s taken me decades to reconcile the apparent contradiction between the industrial and artisanal, now thinking of them as complimentary rather than exclusionary.
For the last 43 years I’ve lived in North Carolina, which has its own world-class folk pottery traditions, and so my work inevitably mingles elements of Spode, Leach, Cardew, and North Carolina.
I’m delighted to finally be coming back to lead a workshop at the Leach Pottery, after all, the last time I was in St. Ives was in 1979, for Leach’s funeral!
Links to Mark’s website and social media:
https://www.instagram.com/markhewittpottery/
https://www.facebook.com/mark.hewitt.9469
The course is taught in a group of no more than 12, in the Leach Pottery’s new purpose-built Learning & Production Studios, allowing for focused teaching and a supportive working environment.
Structure
Day 1:
Arrival at 9:30am. Short orientation tour
Introductions from Mark Hewitt and participants
First demonstration from Mark
Warm up exercise for everyone in the wheels
Lunch 1-1:30pm
Further demonstrations followed by participants working on the wheels
Mark to start a large planter demonstration
Day 2:
Start at 10am
Demonstration to start the day and then participants continue to work on the wheels
Finish pots from yesterday whether this involves adding handles or trimming feet
Lunch 1-1:30pm
Mark to demonstrate slip decoration
Participants have the option to try their hand at slip decorating techniques
Firing
Due to the nature of the Leach Sessions, many participants may have means to fire their own work independently. Participants are welcome to take away up to 5 pieces from the workshop.
Should a participant wish to have one of their pots fired and glazed at the Leach Pottery they are welcome to arrange this during their course for an additional fee of *£28 to cover firing, glazing and postage. *If the address that you would like your work posting to is non-UK, extra postage will apply.
These courses are written to help participants build strong, repeatable skills through hands-on practice and expert guidance from the tutor. We don’t take a firing-focused approach. This emphasis on making—without the pressure or attachment that often comes with firing—encourages a more focused, process-led experience.
Ability & Skill Level
This session is suitable for both improvers and advanced participants. As sessions are taught in small groups, the tutor is able to provide tailored support to each participant, regardless of their skill level. Abilities are self-identified, so there may be a range of experience within the group—but everyone is supported at their own pace.
When: Monday 15 - Tuesday 16 June
Where: The Leach Pottery Learning & Production Studios
Places: 12
Price: £380
Duration: 2 days. Core teaching hours: 10am – 4pm
Please arrive at 9.30am on the first day of your course for the welcome session.
Equipment & materials: clay and a basic tool kit is provided. We focus on building core skills and working directly with the clay to get the most from a core selection of tools. Please bring additional tools if you wish to use them along with an apron and hand towel.
Level: Improver & Intermediate (See here for explanation of skill level criteria)
We are delighted to offer one 10% discount in our Shop during your course.
Any questions? Please visit out FAQ — The Leach Pottery
Please be aware, only assistance dogs are allowed in the Learning spaces.
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