The Pottery Experience Q&A

I find it difficult to put into words how I feel about this amazing team of people. Put simply, they are golden.

I was freelancing at the flower shop when I met Anna, who popped in to buy some plants and we got chatting.

I visited The Pottery Experience for the first time last year. The team contacted me to ask if I would like to be a stall holder at their Christmas Market. With all things Covid at Christmas time I had no idea what to expect but knew in theory it was right up my street and was super chuffed to be asked to be involved.

From the moment I walked into the building I felt completely inspired, I felt excited and I felt like I’d met a really unique and lovely team. This was the first time I had met Hazel and the rest of the gang. It felt like I was with old friends.

After the excitement of meeting the team, being in the space and being around PEOPLE, I was keen to know more about how it all began.

What inspired you to set up The Pottery Experience?

We were both super lucky to work for two wonderful businesses, which provided all the inspiration and information we needed to open our own studio. We were both studying sculpture in Brighton, and on the side I was working at the infamous Painting Pottery Cafe, and Oli was working as a hot tub salesman. As you may guess, one of our jobs turned into the dream lifestyle and the other merely a dream. Maybe we'll install a hot tub in the kiln room one day. 

In the meantime, Oli started working as a web designer and all round handyman for The Happy Startup School. Yet another super inspiring business that helps people take the leap from doing a job that sucks, to building their lives around the things that matter to them - whether it’s starting a business that does good in the world or allows them to live the life they dream of. This was when the sparks started to fly for Oli, and he realised he wanted to start his own business, it took a little while longer and lots of convincing to get me ready take the jump.

After 8 years of managing The Painting Pottery Cafe, and absorbing everything Gill had learnt in her 20 years of running a super successful pottery cafe, I finally felt ready to go it alone.

Flash forward past all the wobbles, pinterest boards and long days DIY to this gorgeous studio space in Jesmond which we launched as The Pottery Experience in April 2019.

Do you all have a background in Pottery and have you always wanted to do it?

We’re a 50/50 split! Liam, Lucy and myself are ceramicists (or fine art sculptors who lean towards ceramics if we’re being fancy), Oli is a web / graphic designer, Jenni is poet / musician / life drawing enthusiast, and Anna is an ecologist (with a spectacular eye for detail and more patience than I could dream of having).

Our shared passion is a love of making creative indulgences accessible and enjoyable for all.

What is the most inspiring thing about small businesses in the North East for you?

Oooh, great question. I love the authenticity and lack of pretence you come across with NE small businesses. When you can feel the person / people behind the business in everything you do, and the passion and individuality that oozes from them.

I think the way so many entrepreneurs have coaxed their visions to do a 360 degree back flip and adapted to the rollercoaster that’s been the last 12 months is worthy of huge commendations.

I guess part of that is down to their loyal and adoring customers who've continued to support and rally for them, adapting so willingly to new products and ordering systems. (Slipping in a huge great big thank you to everyone who’s supported us by ordering a kit, voucher and getting involved on social media, we love you all very much xoxo)

What is your favourite thing to make?

Another great question! I think perhaps a Johnny Vegas ‘one minute teapot’ [if you haven’t seen him do it, have a google, it’s wild]. As the name suggests he makes a teapot in a minute, which is entirely ludicrous as teapots take HOURS and loads of skill to make. Before I saw this challenge I hadn’t dared to make a teapot, it seemed far too hard and something that would almost definitely go wrong. Yet when Johnny said ‘lets be really silly and make one in a minute’ all of a sudden making a teapot didn’t seem so intimidating.

It's a challenge I make sure all our pottery teachers have tried, partially because it’s hilarious and every time I laugh so hard I almost do a little wee, but mainly because pottery can be so serious, lead by practicalities and fear of things going wrong, and it doesn’t need to be. It can be silly, messy and utterly thrilling.

What takes the longest to make?

We’ve been playing along with the challenges from the most recent series of ’The Great Pottery Throw Down’, one of which was to throw a strawberry planter with 10kg of clay, which took AGES and all of our strength, so much so we’ve both sworn never to do it again.

I should say, we don’t just do pottery throwing! We also host pottery painting sessions, boy oh boy do people indulge their time in that. Last year a yoga teacher spent about 8 days with us painting an incredibly detailed mandala on to a huge chip and dip bowl. Time well spent, I’m sure you’ll agree.

Do you have a favourite place which inspires you?

If we’re talking which places inspire us to be the best pottery studio we can be: Creative Space in Denmark is BEAUTIFUL and in typical Danish style everything their customers produce is super cool. Mas + Miek is a mother /daughter lead studio in Australia who run these huge pottery classes and it such a dreamy space (think plants everywhere, massive tables, loads of light, and they’ve got a studio dog) and finally any place I visit where the team are lovely and the customer service is so genuine I have to hold myself back from asking them if they wanna be my best friend.

Silver linings of lockdown?

Personally it’s been exploring Newcastle's green spaces, loads of walking, bird spotting, plodging in the Ouseburn for pottery shards, and having the time to work on my little vegetable plot (all of which I didn’t think I’d have time for until I was retired, but alas here we are!).

Studio wise, developing our pottery painting and making kits has been a joy, not only as it keeps us all busy, but seeing the pieces being made at home followed by ‘IT WAS THE MOST FUN I’VE HAD IN MONTHS!’ feels pretty good.

Despite the studio being officially closed for most of the last 12 months we’ve created 5 brand new making kits, helped people make a billion 'boob pots' and counting, had so much fun hosting our first ever bustling Christmas Market, pushed our skills to the limit as we tried out all the 'Throw Down’ challenges and took on a super cool commission for this really very lovely illustrator and you catch us now in the process of revamping the studio so we can come back better than ever. It’s been quite a year!

That’s not to say we haven’t had multiple wobbles and blue-periods, yet the over all the sense of spontaneity as we keep transforming our experiences to jump through the ever-changing hoops has given me a real sense of playfulness and confidence with the studio and our products, which makes me feel really quite excited for where it could go from here.

Find out more about The Pottery Experience here:

https://www.thepotteryexperience.co.uk/