CLAY & CERAMICS FOR YOUNG PEOPLE

In Spring/Summer 2025 Messums Studios delivered free clay & ceramics workshops for young people thanks to support from Wiltshire Council.

Supported by a grant from Southwest Wiltshire Area Board, Messums Studios was enabled to deliver a series of free workshops which offered the opportunity to young people to experience hands-on creative learning delivered by experts in the field of clay, ceramic and natural materials art.

The £2000 grant we received from Wiltshire Council Southwest Wiltshire Area Board was match-funded by Messums.Org to enable us to deliver 16 contact hours of skill-based specialist creative learning to 39 young people. Supported by four volunteers, Messums Studios staff and visiting artist/tutors delivered four different creative learning experiences.

Each course had a maximum capacity of ten spaces to allow proper learning support for all participants. Each workshop was delivered by a professional practicing artist supported by DBS-checked studio staff and volunteers. Safe practice was observed at all times, and children were instructed in health and safety concerns around each project. Assistance with transport was offered as available upon request for all workshops. Over the course of the programme, this offer was not taken up/requested.

With the target audience of young people aged 13+, the Southwest Wiltshire Area Board funding enabled us to run the following courses:

• Young Clay Symposium | 1 March 2025

• RAKU for Young People | 7 April 2025

• Model Making & Saggar Firing | 26 May 2025

• Natural Colour Making | 14 June 2025

  
  

YOUNG CLAY SYMPOSIUM

Running concurrently with the Ceramics Symposium at Messums West, Messums Studios delivered a 'Young Clay Symposium'. This hands-on creative course explored the topics of the vessel and abstraction. Using pre-prepared, leather-hard, extruded clay cylinders as a starting point, young participants had the opportunity to design their intended sculptural structures. Supported by their tutor, each outcome of this course was distinctly different, expressing the unique creative language of each individual young person.

RAKU FOR YOUNG PEOPLE

RAKU is an outdoor firing method derived from the ancient Japanese ceremonial ceramics firing process. Modern-day RAKU offers the most immediate insight into the ceramic process. It is an exciting open-air activity which involves fire, smoke, and steam. Unlike any other glaze firing, it offers the participant an immediate and vibrant result. In this course, young artists learnt to glaze, observe the firing process and participate in unveiling their resulting pottery. This workshop was attended by nine participants who were given a pot to decorate with RAKU glazes and then witnessed the firing process and took the resulting work home with them on the day. This workshop, due to its nature, was supported by four staff and volunteers. The children were thrilled with the results. This course was also attended by a young person supported by SMASH Youth Project, a Wiltshire & Swindon based charity for vulnerable young people with mental health issues.

Thank you to all concerned for giving my granddaughter and her friend an experience to remember. The chance to tap into undiscovered creative skills is so important for young people in this digital world.”

-Lynne Strange, Tisbury

MODELLING & SAGGAR MAKING

In this two-part workshop, participants were able to experience both the making and experimental outdoor saggar firing process. During part one of this course eight participants engaged in clay sculpting and modelling. They each created a number of creatures and objects inspired by “The Wild”. Using specialist sculpting clay with good thermal resistance properties, the young participants made small, hand-sized sculptures. The work was biscuit fired ready for the second part of this workshop, Saggar Firing.

In this second part of our two-day workshop, young participants had the opportunity to experience a saggar firing in our outdoor RAKU kiln. Firing their wild figures using upcycled metal coffee containers as saggar cases, participants learned about achieving low-fired, fascinating and unpredictable reduction-effect surfaces. Participants were able to take their work home at the end of this workshop.

NATURAL COLOUR MAKING WORKSHOP

Natural Colour workshop with Polly Bennett took place at Messums Studios on 14 June 10am-1pm. In this Pigment Making Workshop, artist Polly Bennett demonstrated to the ten participants how to make a paint brush using horsehair, beeswax, and sticks and how to transform raw earth from Wiltshire, Kent, and Sussex into vibrant, hand-made, watercolour paint. Young people explored sustainable, traditional techniques and processes of purifying pigment, making paint, and creating a unique colour chart. They discovered the rich history of natural pigments and their ancient origins.

SEE OUR UPCOMING WORKSHOPS