Welcome to the Studio

Hello and welcome.

I’m Laura, a part Cumbrian, Part Scottish Potter living in the borderlands making pots from my studio in Northumberland.

I’ll start with a bit about me, I’m 40 and have been potting with gusto (not including while studying art of which I did almost no potting) for approximately 12 years. I studied fine art at University and focused on modern art (I’m not a painter, no matter how much I wish I was one, it doesn’t come naturally and well frankly I dont have the patience required ha.) I love sculpture however, something about making things in 3D, forming them, shaping them, and watching them grow in front of me. I can’t get enough of it!

After uni, like many of us who did a non-vocational degree, I had to leave the art behind in a bid to earn some money. I took on a job that I thought would be fulfilling and creative in a different way, but found that over time it began to suffocate me. The endless energy needed to keep going under increasingly bleak and pressurised conditions caused me to break, and part of my recovery was finding my way back to clay, creating with my hand and peace. Part of that also involved finding a way to slow down, slow the relentless passing of time in a very fast-paced society that seems to constantly need new, more, different. Like a machine that will never stop needing fuel or a monster, you can never fill.

Once I came back to clay and making the need to create and make grew and grew, as did my ability and eventually that led me to here, sitting in my little room at the back of my workshop, filled with warm lights and a comfy chair writing this thinking about what Pots I need to throw later and if Penny (the puppa I got instead of a honeymoon - best money we’ve ever spent!) is capable of making me a brew if I promise belly rubs when we get home tonight.

What I make. It’s been a lot over the years, and it took me a long time to really find what itches the right spot creatively.

I love folklore, Celtic mythology and history, I love the idea of being part of something older, deeper, and more connected to the earth and nature and that is what influences the pots I make. I like to think it influences all parts of my life and the person I am really.

I mean I still have flirtations with other styles and ways of making, usually in the summer months for some reason, like a cat distracted by a laser light every now and then I have a mad flurry of making traditional Japanese pottery instead of my usual makes, and I love it while I’m doing it, but then it passes and I fall back on comfortable ground and make some mugs with teeth on them or a house or crumbling archway.

When I’m not potting, I’m usually with my children, husband, the cat and dog and we’re making a mess in the kitchen or gaming in our bedroom or making something for our shop.

I have a very supportive husband with whom I run our shop in Northumberland, and two lovely, slightly stinky children (6 and 8), as well as the puppa and Twig the kitten, who is a lunatic whose floof is so extensive she looks like she’s wearing old-fashioned bloomers on her back legs. She is very, very sassy, and even though she has been with us a couple of years now, puppa is still not convinced. We love to cook, make and craft when we are home together (I’m making this sound like we are one of those beautifully curated Instagram families that somehow seem to still have clean children, and white walls but do fingerprinting and baking every night after school before homework, healthy snacks, a wholefood home cooked dinner then stories before bed ha, that we are not!) the kids bloody love chicken nuggets, the dog steals the cat’s food daily, I regularly forget the kid’s homework and we all love a bit of screen time, more than we should, but also we are only human and sometimes you can’t beat being sat on the sofa together eating sweet and salty popcorn (tesco own, it’s the best, trust me we’ve done the testing for you) all playing games on our own devices (the smallest grown plays with the biggest grown on the PlayStation ha) all things in moderation I suppose.

My favourite game, you ask? The Witcher 3. Still, I don’t care how long ago it came out; I will replay that game until the new one comes out. I also love DnD, playing and listening to/ watching actual play, board games, my Switch, watching YouTubers game (I can highly recommend Gab Smoulders) and coop gaming with the husband.

For work, I make things, lots of things, probably too many things if I’m honest. As I said earlier, my husband and I have a small shop in Northumberland, a shop for the senses if you will, and I make a lot of the stock we have in there. Over my years of crafting, I have managed to get fairly good at some of it, and we now sell those things. I make jewellery from Eco silver, modern minimalist everyday ware, and I also sculpt with PMC (which is precious metal clay) that is fired in the kiln, burning away the binders, leaving 99% solid metal. I use some silver and some bronze. I also make hand-poured essential oil candles, wax melts and all sorts of other house scents, as well as making gift boxes, prints and artwork, printed tote bags and other wearables, and I do have some of my pottery in the shop too.

What’s the blog about then? I don’t know if I’m honest. My plans are to hopefully create a monthly one that is like a What’s the crack this month, what have we been making, what’s coming up next month, what is growing, maybe some fun crafts, who knows, let’s see where it takes us?

Initially, I was going to do it all about pottery, but then I also felt it would be nice to document some of the reasons behind some of my makes, both pottery and not, as I am always making something, not necessarily just pottery, especially seasonal things or ones that have a good folktale behind them, so it will be sharing tales from the workshop, makes, recipies, seasonal bits and what I’ve been up to. If I come accross a particulary fun bit of folklore or story then Ill share that too!