Southport Ceramics Studio

Since leaving Southport College after they closed the ceramics department down, me and Don Parkinson, who ran the department, have been planning on opening our own independant pottery workshop. We manged to buy some of the equipment from the college, rent an industrial unit and we have now been open for a few weeks now.

Many of our ex students from the college have been coming in to use the space and it's been going really well.

We are planning to open officially in the summer and advertise courses for the public.

It's had such a great response from our students who are working in there and we have lots of plans to keep improving and developing the space so watch this space!

More panels..

Some of the finished panel surfaces - coloured with paint, enamels, sanded back and waxed.

Sheldrake Restaurant Panel

Hello, it's been a while since I last posted on here as I've been working on a large scale commission with a friend of mine, glass and ceramics artist Leandra Holder. I was waiting for the client's approval of the work we had done so far which we got a couple of days ago when the interior designers and restaurant owner came over to the workshop in Southport to have a look at the panel.

The restaurant is on the Wirral and overlooks the Dee Estuary, it has amazing views and is currently undergoing a £750,000 refit. Our panel will be the focal point as it will be in the new foyer area.

The panel is a little under 5 metres long and is made from panels of textured clay and dozens of handmade glass pebbles as well as beautiful rope effect ceramic sculptural forms and a specially written poem all by Leandra! She's worked incredibly hard on the panel.

It's based on the restaurant's location and has references to the sea, sand dunes, marshland and rivers. It looks pretty stunning at the moment and still has a little way to go before it's finished. The restaurant refit opens in three weeks time so we have lots to do!

                                                              The original design

                                                Detail of glass pebbles and rope effect

                                                                          The wall..

                                                            Preparing the clay panels

                                                               The map of the panel