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…
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.
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.
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.
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!
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.
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