Beginners’ Pottery Courses
If you're a beginner potter and like the sound of relaxing weekend mornings spent playing with clay, book yourself onto a course at Islington Arts Factory. New dates have been released for Autumn 2022!
October 2022: 1st, 2nd, 15th, 16th
Each course runs 10am-1pm with 10 spaces available. The course fee is £195 per person, all materials and firings included.
Find details here.
Session 1: Press Mould and Slip Decorate
Roll perfectly even slabs of clay and press them into a plaster mould to create a shallow dish or bowl. Explore the decorative possibilities of decorating slips (coloured liquid clays). Use newspaper, slip trailers, a range of brushes and wooden tools to create exciting surface decoration.
Session 2: Pinch and Texturise
Follow your instincts and experiment with the simplest way to manipulate clay – I said simplest, not easiest! Pinch the clay between finger and thumb and practise controlling the form to create functional objects. Play with tools to texturise the surface and add handles, foot rings and lips to determine the function of your piece.
Session 3: Glaze and Coil
Learn the steps involved in basic glaze-dipping and brushing, working with the fired results from Sessions 1 & 2.
By the end of this session you’ll be an excellent coiler! Learn how to roll the perfect coil, build a pot from the bottom up, fix the coils together so they never come apart and experiment with form by placing the coils in different formations.
Session 4: Refine and Slab Build
Grate, scrape and refine your coiled piece from Session 3 to reduce the weight of the piece and create your desired surface finish.
Roll beautiful slabs, add texture and learn how to stick them together to create vessels with curved and flat sides.
Email Kayley to book a place if you'd like to come along at kayley.holderness@gmail.com
If you're a beginner potter and like the sound of relaxing weekend mornings spent playing with clay, book yourself onto a course at Islington Arts Factory. New dates have been released for Autumn 2022!
October 2022: 1st, 2nd, 15th, 16th
Each course runs 10am-1pm with 10 spaces available. The course fee is £195 per person, all materials and firings included.
Find details here.
Session 1: Press Mould and Slip Decorate
Roll perfectly even slabs of clay and press them into a plaster mould to create a shallow dish or bowl. Explore the decorative possibilities of decorating slips (coloured liquid clays). Use newspaper, slip trailers, a range of brushes and wooden tools to create exciting surface decoration.
Session 2: Pinch and Texturise
Follow your instincts and experiment with the simplest way to manipulate clay – I said simplest, not easiest! Pinch the clay between finger and thumb and practise controlling the form to create functional objects. Play with tools to texturise the surface and add handles, foot rings and lips to determine the function of your piece.
Session 3: Glaze and Coil
Learn the steps involved in basic glaze-dipping and brushing, working with the fired results from Sessions 1 & 2.
By the end of this session you’ll be an excellent coiler! Learn how to roll the perfect coil, build a pot from the bottom up, fix the coils together so they never come apart and experiment with form by placing the coils in different formations.
Session 4: Refine and Slab Build
Grate, scrape and refine your coiled piece from Session 3 to reduce the weight of the piece and create your desired surface finish.
Roll beautiful slabs, add texture and learn how to stick them together to create vessels with curved and flat sides.
Email Kayley to book a place if you'd like to come along at kayley.holderness@gmail.com
Weekly Intermediate Level Classes
Tuesday / Thursday evenings, 6-9pm
Thursday afternoons, 1-3.30pm
£30 per person for 2.5 hours with a fee of £3 per kg clay used to cover material fees and firing. Work will be weighed at the end of the session and payment for clay is by bank transfer. (1kg would make roughly three mug-sized pinch pots, one medium coil pot, or two breakfast bowl-sized thrown pieces.)
Booking is flexible on a weekly basis. Sign up to the studio mailing list below to receive an email each Sunday detailing plans for workshops in the week ahead and reserve your spot. Payment is required upon booking by bank transfer. In order to accommodate smaller class sizes, you will be asked when booking which sessions you're available for and willing to attend in order of preference. While all requests will be prioritized, slots will be allocated on a first-come, first-served basis if necessary. In order to stagger start/finish times, you will be given a 2.5 hour slot within the workshop session times, ie. 6-8.30pm or 6.30-9pm.
There are four pottery wheels available for people with throwing experience to use. The time available on the wheel depends on the number of throwers at each session.
Due to pressure on storage space there will be a strict six-week binning policy for work at each stage of making before it is reclaimed, used as a glaze test, or donated to other arts projects.
Tuesday / Thursday evenings, 6-9pm
Thursday afternoons, 1-3.30pm
£30 per person for 2.5 hours with a fee of £3 per kg clay used to cover material fees and firing. Work will be weighed at the end of the session and payment for clay is by bank transfer. (1kg would make roughly three mug-sized pinch pots, one medium coil pot, or two breakfast bowl-sized thrown pieces.)
Booking is flexible on a weekly basis. Sign up to the studio mailing list below to receive an email each Sunday detailing plans for workshops in the week ahead and reserve your spot. Payment is required upon booking by bank transfer. In order to accommodate smaller class sizes, you will be asked when booking which sessions you're available for and willing to attend in order of preference. While all requests will be prioritized, slots will be allocated on a first-come, first-served basis if necessary. In order to stagger start/finish times, you will be given a 2.5 hour slot within the workshop session times, ie. 6-8.30pm or 6.30-9pm.
There are four pottery wheels available for people with throwing experience to use. The time available on the wheel depends on the number of throwers at each session.
Due to pressure on storage space there will be a strict six-week binning policy for work at each stage of making before it is reclaimed, used as a glaze test, or donated to other arts projects.
Private Throwing Tuition
Learn the basics of throwing with Kayley Holderness in her studio at Islington Arts Factory.
Want to go solo?
1:1 tuition is £90/2 hours
Bringing a friend or two?
2:1 tuition is £140/2 hours
3:1 tuition £180/2 hours
Sessions must be a minimum of two hours. but can be more!
Email Kayley to find a date that works and reserve your tuition time. Payment is required upon booking by bank transfer.
Learn the basics of throwing with Kayley Holderness in her studio at Islington Arts Factory.
Want to go solo?
1:1 tuition is £90/2 hours
Bringing a friend or two?
2:1 tuition is £140/2 hours
3:1 tuition £180/2 hours
Sessions must be a minimum of two hours. but can be more!
Email Kayley to find a date that works and reserve your tuition time. Payment is required upon booking by bank transfer.