About me

Who I am

Hi there, I’m Dawn – a 44 year old potter! I’ve always had a bit of an affinity to clay. One of my earliest memories is of making a duck in the back garden that I then painted (although that was made out of window putty – ahhh the good old 80s!). I was always drawn to making and creating – but this mainly came out as drawing (and even that got sidetracked). Clay just wasn’t really something we had a lot of access to, my school did offer clay modelling, but didn’t have a wheel or anything similar. Over time, life got busy and I started to firstly build a career in marketing, then have my kids (then re-build my career!).

Rediscovering clay and pottery

I dabbled a small amount and took a short course with my friend while I was in my 20’s – and had been on the lookout for a local course I could attend. I finally found one around 2 years ago. This course was fantastic, brilliant people, a fantastic teacher – and it meant I could learn some of the basic techniques associated with creating. There was a strong focus on hand-building as there was one wheel in the class, and while I enjoyed hand-building I found myself drawn to the wheel as we went along. I did have a few attempts on the wheel, but as the focus was on handbuilding it was kind of just having a go and seeing what happened.

Buying pottery equipment

I enjoyed throwing so much that I started researching what I could do from home. I was extremely lucky and managed to find a small kiln being sold locally for an excellent price. It’s old, but in good condition and is perfect for what I need. It meant that I could start making and firing straight away. I scoured the internet for hours to try and find a second-hand wheel, but eventually decided on buying a new wheel. At over £1000 this wasn’t a small decision to make – and I knew I would need to make the most of my new passion. Pottery is far from a cheap hobby!

Wheelwork

After a year on the introductory course I’ve mentioned, I found a wheelwork course locally too! The competition to get onto this course is fierce, something I have noticed is the case on most wheel courses. However, this has been a real delight – with the new class also being lovely (maybe there is a common theme here with people who enjoy pottery!) and another great teacher showing me how to improve and teaching me about glazing – my nemesis!

Going forwards

Eventually I hope to be good enough at pottery to sell some of my work – but until then it’s practise, practise, practise – something I want to share for anyone thinking of starting pottery as a hobby. I would say that it’s well worth it – for me it is a form of meditation and a way to de-stress – there’s something about it you can’t quite put your finger on! Please feel free to contact me if you’d like any of my (very limited) advice, or to discuss pottery! I think most of my friends are sick to the back teeth of me talking about it!