Patia Davis joined the Workshops at Wobage in 1991 after training at Harrow and Cardiff. Bridget Drakeford has been a professional maker since 1977, her current home and studio is in nearby Fownhope, South Herefordshire. They are both Professional members of the Craft Potters Association of Great Britain. Between them they have over 40 years experience working with stoneware and porcelain on the wheel, their work is exhibited widely throughout the UK, Bridget’s also in Europe and Japan. More information about Bridget Drakeford and Patia Davis.

To find out about availability or to book a place please visit the booking page.

As well as lunch, the price for this course includes supper on Monday 4th, also wood-fired pizza on the firing evening, Friday 8th. Course participants construct and bake their own pizza. The kiln will be drawn on Sunday and the resulting pots ground and cleaned up will be discussed over a farewell Sunday lunch.

More information about Nigel Lambert is available on the Tutors Pages. To find out about availability or to book a place please visit the booking page.

As well as lunch, the price for this course includes supper on Monday 4th, also wood-fired pizza on the firing evening, Friday 8th. Course participants construct and bake their own pizza. The kiln will be drawn on Sunday and the resulting pots ground and cleaned up will be discussed over a farewell Sunday lunch.

More information about Jeremy Steward is available on the Tutors Pages. To find out about availability or to book a place please visit the booking page.

Inspired by the history of European pot-making traditions as well as the soft fluidity of the materials themselves, pots are decorated in various ways; often embellished with stamps, wooden roulettes or finger-wipes through wet slip, providing movement and accentuation to form.

“My involvement with wood-firing and salt & soda-vapour glazing, forms an intimate and dynamic aspect to my making. Subjected to the vagaries of kiln atmosphere and flame movement, the pots celebrate a meeting between the conscious and unconscious. Control and intention exercised in the studio, is tempered by the inevitability of a certain unpredictability in the kiln-fire.”

“Jeremy is a potter content to take his time to develop skills and experience but adamant that these will arrive due to ways of working suited to him. These include: making clay bodies, slips and glazes of his own composition; throwing on a momentum wheel, raw firing with wood & salt/soda.

The work emerging from these conditions is therefore undergoing a constant honing for form, colour and function. What I most admire is the ‘bone and muscle’ of the throwing. But equally I like the fact that there is a quite distinct ‘track of events’ evident in his work. I have called it the fourth dimension - time. I can see and feel the time and rhythm of these pots from clay, through forming and firing, to the finished work ready for use in domestic surroundings.” Mick Casson.

Jeremy is a Fellow of the Craft Potters Association of Great Britain and exhibits widely in the UK and Europe.

On Wednesdays, Patia’s students make slip-decorated earthenware and on Thursdays, Jeremy’s work in salt-glazed stoneware.

Reservations for a 10 week term are made with a £50 deposit, the remaining balance of £130 is payable on the first evening of term. A small charge will be made in addition to the course fee to cover the cost of fired pots. For current availability, dates and booking forms please call Patia for the Wednesday class on 01594 542534, or for the Thursday class Jeremy on 01989 780448.

She has been a prizewinner at the Mashiko Ceramics Competition in Japan, and at the World Ceramic Exposition in Korea. She won an Arts Council Award for an exhibition and study tour to Japan in 2005. She is a professional member of the Craft Potters Association of Great Britain and has exhibited widely at major venues throughout Britain and Internationally.

Bridget’s influences come principally from the classical forms of European and Oriental ceramics. These influences have come together in assured forms and technical concepts, to which she adds refined and individual touches. Her work ranges from wide, open bowls to teapots & caddies with some pieces having innovative decorative detailing in precious metals, hand worked by the artist. All of her pieces are graced with a subtlety of finish and sophisitcation of glaze colour that makes them very collectable & much sought after.

More information: http://www.bdporcelain.co.uk/

Historic pots and potters have been a strong influence on Nigel’s approach to ceramics. From the warm colours of old french and spanish peasant ware, the fine brush work of Delft pottery; to more recent potters such as Michael Cardew, Peter Smith and American potter Jeff Oestrich. Nigel Lambers trained at Cornwall College and with Roger Cockram at his north Devon pottery. He established his first workshop in Bristol in 1987, this lasted until 1990 when he moved to the Forest of Dean, where he currently lives and works.

He has exhibited widely in England and Europe and was elected a fellow of the Craft Potters Association in 1990.

More information: www.nigellambertpotter.co.uk

Petra’s innovative techniques in slab-building and decorating have in recent years earned her a reputation as one of the leading contemporary makers in the UK. Construction begins with one of many paper templates. Clay slabs are then cut around, mitred, bent and folded into a range of domestic shapes.

The inspiration for her decoration is many fold. From playful experimentation with line, pattern and composition, sketches evolve firstly on paper into monochrome or colour monoprint and collagraph. Decoration on pots takes place at the leather hard stage using slips and glazes. Initially slips are layered with brushwork, pouring and paper resist. This provides canvas for a more linear decoration which is achieved by a form of printmaking.

Motifs are drawn from an array of different objects and observations bringing to life a new and ever-changing vocabulary of marks and compositions. The pots are once-fired to 1300C with salt & soda in a wood-fired kiln.

Petra is currently working at home as a full-time Mum to her son Alfred. She will return as one of the tutors on the course programme in future years.

Her gentle porcelain forms evoke a sense of quiet and calm. It is the beautiful smoothness of the thrown material which emphasises the directness of the maker’s touch; hand against rib, inner tension with lift and softness of rim. With crispness, fluidity and care in the making, these qualities are relinquished to the glazed pot upon firing, captured underneath the subtle pale hues of transparent glaze.

The porcelain is bisqued and then gas-fired to 1300C. The warm, rich colours and strong forms of Patia’s domestic earthenware pots reflect her motivation towards utility and the joyful role that these pots play from kitchen to table.

They are raw-glazed and once-fired to 1120C. Not unlike the rural English terracotta potters of earlier centuries, Patia’s creative response to living and making evolves steadily and confidently. Her deft lightness of touch on the wheel and the influence of the natural world surrounding her home and workshop, brings a contemporary edge to a range of pots which also assert a deep respect for tradition.