A summer of clay fun

Hello, there was so much that happened over the summer I felt the need for a summer newsletter/blog. It's been diverse as normal. So here's the highlights.
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At the beginning of the summer holidays I had fun taking part in Sting in the Tale festival in Wimborne. To compliment the story telling festival there was crocodile making in the morning and dragon making in the afternoon. A new photo booth was made for the creations with a castle and mote as the backdrop. It was a brilliant festival with some amazing puppets and storytelling. Some fabulous creations were made including this detailed dragon.

Another brilliant event was the Dorset Arts and Craft Association summer show in Wareham. As part of the event there was a variety of workshops. I organised two workshops, ammonites and turtles in air drying clay for families. I also entered a couple of my hand built ceramics in the open exhibition and was very happy to be awarded the Potters Challenge cup!

Creative Clay For All took part in a new Arts and Environment day at Portland Marina and was back at Lyme Regis Museum for a variety of workshops during the summer. These included dinosaurs, rabbits inspired by Beatrice Potter, octopus and beach huts. There was some fantastic and creative clay artworks. Below are a few. Did you participate and is yours in the blog?

August bank holiday at Maumbury Rings in Dorchester for the Anonymous festival. If you have not been before it is a great festival for families. Everything is free to do including live music, art, bungee run and bouncy castles. A little bit different for this event. An alien clay installation. Families could create aliens or space ships and add them to the metallic silver space scene. Another photo booth for the creations was made with black interior and silver stars sprayed on. The planets were added to the front. There is a video on the facebook page

Into September there were more adult workshops. I had a few private bookings and took part in the Bridport Fringe as part of Bridport arts weeks for a drop in environmental clay session and took part in the Libraries as Cultural Hubs. Sunflower clay bowls made with Creative Clay For All at Weymouth library. Upstairs, the library was well lit and calm. Many of the participants had not made anything with clay since they were at school. I think they did brilliantly. The images are the sunflowers being unloaded from the kiln. 

In the middle of September Sculpture by the Lakes had their first Wellbeing by the Lakes event. Three days wellbeing including yoga, talks and Tibetan Monks. I was in a fabulous marquee for three days running botanical tile drop in sessions. On the Friday and Saturday Stephen Yates, a potter from Portland joined me to demonstrate his throwing skills. I managed to take a great photo of the monks watching him throw. The event was well organised and will be happening again next year. I shall finish this blog with images of the event. I hope you have enjoyed this newsletter blog. There are lots of classes and events happening this autumn including the regular morning pottery class at Milton Abbas, so please join me in being creative and having fun with clay.