St. Ives Spring-Spruce-Up

Lots of businesses in St. Ives spend the Spring months freshening up, from buildings getting a new coat of paint to new shops preparing to open. It’s not just on land; down in the harbour the tourist boats start to reappear again and some fishing vessels have had a Spring spruce-up. In St. Ives Pottery we are also having a re-jig to create more space for workshops and make space for our new small kiln which is on it’s way! (All the time making sure RAAR Emporium fits in perfectly as well.) It’s been a very busy year for us as we continue to grow and teach people of all ages/skills wheel-throwing. Pretty soon we can offer more advanced sessions and special St. Ives Pottery items. Exciting times as ever, lots more to come…

Mothers Day Gift Idea

With Mothers’ Day fast approaching are you stuck thinking of something fun and different to do? How about bringing her for a Pottery Taster Session with us? Or giving her a gift voucher to use when she wants to? A pottery session for you and your mum is a lovely joint activity. We will be available for pre-booked workshops on Sunday 31st and as normal the following week.

New Workshop Options

With the popularity of our taster sessions and the requests for more in-depth pottery lessons, we have been working on new options. So if you’re looking for things to do in St. Ives, we now offer three types of pottery wheel-throwing experiences. Adding to our classic Pottery Taster Session you can now also book a 1 hour Pottery Lesson and an Intensive Wheel-Throwing Experience.

These three are all make-and-take sessions, once your creation has dried enough.

Pottery Taster Session

Create your own pot on a potter’s wheel, in this introductory session that lasts up to half an hour. Our resident potter will give you a demonstration, the you will try your hand creating a pot.

We try to make this a fun and relaxed experience for all ages and skill levels, with no pressure.

You can take away 1 pot from this session.

Pottery Lesson

For those wanting a more in-depth introduction to pottery wheel-throwing our new Pottery Lesson is a great start and lasts one hour. Our resident potter will give you a demonstration, then go into the history and processes of wheel-throwing, including the background history of pottery in St Ives, wedging the clay, centering and throwing a pot.  You will have one-to-one tuition while you create various pieces at a relaxed pace. You can take away 3 pots from this session.

Intensive Wheel-Throwing Experience.

Learn new techniques and how to create various vessels in this action-packed informative lesson lasting 90 minutes per person. It is suitable for adult beginners, or those with a little more experience. After a demonstration on centering and cylinders, you will begin mastering the basics. Then you will be set challenges on the wheel, including throwing the tallest pot you can, forming a wide bowl using different throwing techniques, and finally designing and decorating a piece using all the skills you have learnt. Our potter will be with you throughout to tutor and advise you. You can take away 4 pots from this session.

See our Prices and Booking page for more details.

One Year of Lessons!

We have now been teaching people wheel-throwing for a whole year! Over 240 people, most of them having their first ever go on a potter’s wheel. It has been amazing fun and great meeting so many enthusiastic people of all ages, all of whom successfully created something. Today one of the very first people to have a go came in to see us to let us know she has carried on and is currently doing a pottery course, which made Angela’s day. It is lovely to have helped people start off on a ceramics journey that will keep making them happy, as well as getting more people doing crafts through the toyshop.

Very soon we will be offering longer and more advanced pottery courses as we expand. Thanks to a lot of hard work and help from Angela’s family and Cultivator we will have a kiln by the end of April, so expect lots of products from Angela and various new courses to get more people potting. Lots more to come…

St. Ives September Festival

Porthminster in September.

St. Ives is buzzing with the annual September Festival with venues all over town showcasing art and music. It’s a great time to explore St. Ives with galleries having special days and pop-up exhibitions as well as varied workshops for people to try.

The town is quieter than August, the weather is still mild and the beaches pretty empty. September also has some very high/low tides so the beaches are kept nice and fresh and plenty of beach to explore at low tide.

We stay open year-round so we still have drop in wheel-throwing pottery lessons available as normal.

Goings on……..

Porthmeor August Sunset

As always we have been busy behind the scenes working towards growing and developing the pottery. We had been hoping to have a kiln in the space by now, unfortunately due to some sudden changes in possible funding in West Cornwall, this has been delayed and we are looking at other options. Angela’s creations are filling up the shelves so we are thinking of a possible Kickstarter campaign to help.  In the meantime we have got some St. Ives Pottery uniform for Angela to wear!

The pottery wheel-throwing experiences are going well with loads of children and families so far this holiday; it is great fun seeing all the different creations that people make. The way clay behaves on the wheel often surprises people.

Summer Holidays

As the Summer holidays start, thoughts of beach days and fun activities begin filling people’s minds, and as always we are here to provide some clay fun.

Book a time slot with us or pop past for a drop in session on certain days. All ages are catered for and seeing all the different things people make is great. Individual workshops or groups are welcome; the groups can get quite competitive. And don’t forget we can do evenings as well to make sure anyone who wants to try their hand at being a St. Ives Potter has a chance.

A couple of the great creations made with added textures.

Things to do in St. Ives in the rain

St. Ives is well known for its beaches and crystal clear sea but what is there to do if it rains? There is actually a lot to do year-round and in all weathers in St. Ives and here are some of our suggestions.

St. Ives Pottery – We offer wheel-throwing pottery experiences no matter what the weather, often drop-in lessons are available but please do let us know in advance if there is a certain day or time you would like.

Coco Kitchen – Fun chocolate-based workshops for all ages at  www.cocokitchen.co.uk  A great place to experiment with chocolate and it has a cafe at the front for anyone not taking part to relax and enjoy the many tasty treats they have on offer. Also great for wedding parties and staff nights out.

St. Ives Cinema – We LOVE our cinema, we see it as having character and a great community asset, friendly staff and brilliant it is still in St. Ives with such a declining population….some might see it as a little run down, the ticket prices are much cheaper than most places to reflect that.  If you are of similar age to us you might even find it a bit nostalgic like going to the cinema in the 80’s. Please do support it where you can, on sunny days it will often be very quiet but rainy days it can be packed. Check out what they have on by clicking here.

Enjoy some food and drink – St. Ives is full of wonderful cafes, pubs and restaurants that are nice and cosy and one of our favourite things is to sit somewhere watching a good storm out of the window. The Albatross opposite us does our favourite chips, you can eat-in, and they even do ice cream for pudding!

May Half Term

For this Bank Holiday week and half-term we are open some extra hours. You can come in and have a pottery wheel-throwing experience Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday.  Message us on here or pop in from 11am – 4pm and as usual if you would like a different time let us know and we are sure we can sort something out for you. We are closed from Friday 1st June then back to normal Tuesday 5th June.

 

St Ives Food Festival

This weekend we are at St. Ives Food Festival were you can come and see Angela and make some Clay Creatures on the grass by the beach. There are lots of great chefs, food stalls, fun activities, music and our personal favourite thing FIREWORKS on Saturday night!!!!! Its a great place to see local business and enjoy hanging out on the best St. Ives beach, Porthminster. We are back in the Pottery on Monday when we can do wheel-throwing experiences again.

Hope to see you on the beach.

 

© 2024 St. Ives Pottery and Chris Roberts Creative
error: Content is protected and images copyrighted and may not be reproduced without permission.