Welcome to our first newsletter! We are Karen and Ian George. We have been making and teaching pottery for years but in 2023 we decided to take it a bit more seriously. It’s been busy! We called ourselves Elmhurst Creative, created a website and got ourselves on Instagram and Facebook. We now have work in galleries and students coming regularly for lessons. Read on to find out how it all happened and take a look at what comes next…
Sales and Exhibitions
Karen took part in the Anglian Potters Christmas Selling Exhibition last year but this year we both have work there. It takes place in All Saints’ Church, Jesus Lane, Cambridge and runs from 18 November to 10 December, 10am – 4pm every day except Mondays. We will be among 65 makers from East Anglia showing and selling our work. Definitely a good place to find a unique handmade Christmas present.
All the exhibitors take a turn stewarding the exhibition. If you want to pop in, Ian will be on duty on Friday 24th November and Karen will be on duty on Wednesday 6th December.
We will also be at a local Christmas craft market at the Cottenham Community Centre on Saturday 25 November. It was great last year to meet so many familiar faces and to show the village what we are doing. Last year there was a wide range of different crafts such as sewing, knitting and paper crafts.
In the spring, Karen exhibited her work at the Ferini Gallery near Lowestoft and was pleased to sell a range of work including some large bowls and installations of smaller porcelain bowls.
Ian took his work to Haddenham Arts Centre in May for their Summer Art Market. There were a lot of lovely crafts people there and it started a relationship with the Arts Centre so that they now stock Ian’s smoke-fired vases. They would also like to sell Karen’s work so watch this space!
Website and Social Media
We are slowly learning the ways of the modern world and our website is steadily developing. On it you can find separate pages for Ian and Karen along with details of our pottery lessons. Coming next will be an online shop so watch this space! If you would like us to send you an occasional newsletter like this then please send us your email address. For more up-to-date information and news (including exhibitions and the opening of our online shop) please follow us on Facebook or Instagram.
Teaching
We finished fitting out our garden studio ready for teaching with a nice big table, shelves, lights, a heater and an electric wheel. Now it is a great space to work with lots of natural light and everything organised and to hand. We have also been developing a range of new glazes, slips and underglazes, partly for us and partly for our students. So far we are teaching just one morning each week but now that’s working smoothly, we would like to start a second morning – anyone want pottery lessons? You can see some of the amazing things our students have made in the gallery.
The future
So what next? Online sales and a few more galleries are on the list. An extra class each week would be good. Also, in the next year, we need a bigger kiln so we can fire bigger work. Eventually, we want to have a bigger studio with space for 6 students. We think this will feel more social – more like a club. We also want to offer raku and wood firings, initially for our own work but also then for students and friends.
We hope you will keep in touch and join us on the journey,
Ian and Karen.