Monday’s class is a wheel- throwing course, catering for all skill levels from complete beginners to well experienced makers. We have a power-wheel for each student,  a maximum of nine for each 10 week term. There is a Saviac treddle wheel for anyone preferring foot power rather than electric! Alongside developing skills in throwing and handling,  there will be opportunity to evolve personal ideas through a variety of different making projects. The pots are once-fired, so students carry out every process from making through to slip-decorating and raw-glazing. Monday’s class will be using earthenware clay and exploring many exciting methods of slip application with a variety of vibrant colours.   This class keeps the same hours as the other Wobage evening classes, beginning at 6.45pm – 9.15pm. There’s a well earned break with a cuppa and piece of cake at the end. Patia Davis will be the tutor for this class, and can be contacted directly via her tutor page for bookings. We have a high demand for our evening classes, and anticipate that places will book out fast. So don’t delay, book now! Your place is reserved upon receipt of your booking form and a deposit cheque or transfer.

We’ve had a last minute cancellation for our most popular course of the season, the 5-day Earthenware Throwing & Slip Decoration course with Patia and guest Jane Bowen, 9th – 13th July 2014.  It’s a great looking schedule,  a last chance for someone to book up!

Further course updates: There are still places available on our 4-day ‘Clay Brainstorming’ course with Jeremy and Sandy Lockwood 7th-10th August, ‘Jug-making’ is now fully booked, and finally there’s just one place left on ‘Improvers’ 11th – 15th June, with Jeremy and Hermann Peterson.

This week we heard from long-standing summer school student Jane and the sad loss of her canine companion, Dilly. The gentle and beautiful old Dilly, will perhaps be best remembered for her wonderfully distinctive and wispy ears! Over the years she has become something of a mascot for the Wobage summer season and she’ll be much missed by all. We’re thinkin’ of you Jane!xx

We’ve an exciting new course just published, a one-day exploration into the seductive joys of faceting wheel-thrown clay, with tutor Anastasia Simmons. A one-off, Saturday 3rd May, don’t miss it!

We are delighted to publish that Sandy Lockwood will be visiting Wobage for demonstration and tutorial during her visit to Europe this August ’14. The Improvers course is entitled ‘Clay Brainstorming’, please view the individual course page for further details.

‘To be successful you  must respect failure and understand the power that not knowing can give you. Very few ever truly aim high enough or realize their potential. The really successful never stop trying, never stop making mistakes and never feel they have got all the answers. The joy is in the journey.’

Richard Gerver

Lunchtime chat with Niek and Pim Hoogland, 'Earthenware Throwing' 2013

You can read reviews from students attending courses in previous years, on the page ‘Testimonials’ via the courses pages.

The Wobage flat is booked for the first three courses of the season, but still free for the last, Patia’s 4 day ‘Slip-decorating Earthenware’. You’ll find recommendations for alternative local places to stay on our ‘Accommodation’ page

We’re very excited by our line-up of guest demonstration for 2014. We welcome Hermann Peterson all the way from the North Friesian Island of Pellworm, North Germany, for an all new ‘Improvers’ course. A master of our contemporary studio pottery generation, Professor Walter Keeler returns for 2 days of demonstration and tutorial during the ‘Jug-Making’ course. Finally, Jane Bowen makes her first appearance on the Wobage teaching programme, alongside Patia on the ‘Earthenware Throwing and Slip-Decoration’ course. The courses are already booking out fast with only one or two places left on some. So be quick and catch our ‘Early-Bird’  booking offer before the end of January.

For the 2014 season, we are once more offering a 5% discount on bookings made before January 31st 2014. In addition, you’ll get a £15 pot voucher to spend on a pot made by one of the tutors teaching on the course that you have booked on. Our course prices are unchanged from last year, our aim with this Early Bird incentive being to attract swift bookings and full courses in order to cut expensive advertising, and thus keep our prices competitive.

It’s an exciting season ahead with an esteemed line-up of guest demonstration. We are all looking forward to the summer and to hearing from you soon!

(image – Jill’s birds for Nic & Kath, detail of celebratory charger on Slip decoration course 2013)

Please join us at Wobage for fresh coffee and mince pies for our Chrismas Exhibition. We’re open Thursday, Friday and Saturday, 10am – 5pm. Enjoy a break from the busy high-streets, a quiet shopping experience for quality hand-made. For further information, please visit our Wobage Gallery website.

Our summer 2014 programme is close to launch, full dates and details for which will be available for viewing online within the next two or three weeks. New to the season will be a repetition production course ‘From Egg Cups To Breadcrocks’, Earthenware Throwing Improvers guesting Jane Bowen and the re-introduction of a firing course where students will be invited to help wood-fire our new mini-Phoenix kiln. Please subscribe to our online mailing list if you haven’t already, and you’ll hear from us just as soon as everything is live and available for ‘Early-Bird’ booking.