Sat 31st Oct 12:30 - 3pm - Halloween Vessels Pottery Workshop

Halloween Vessels Pottery Workshop

Create a Cauldron, Pumpkin, Jack-o’-Lantern or Your Own Sculptural Vessel

Join Carys in the studio for a playful pottery workshop, inspired by the folklore, traditions and imagery that surround Halloween - or take the techniques in your own direction and create a vessel to enjoy all year round.

Halloween has deep roots in the old Gaelic festival of Samhain, traditionally marking the end of the harvest and the beginning of the darker half of the year. Of course, here in the Southern Hemisphere our seasons are turning in the opposite direction - towards summer rather than winter - but many of us still celebrate Halloween and feel a connection to the stories and traditions that travelled here from the Northern Hemisphere.

You’ll begin with a pre-made, wheel-thrown round clay form, approximately 12cm high, ready for you to transform. Starting with the form already made means you can spend the workshop concentrating on the creative part - building, sculpting, carving and decorating.

Embrace the Halloween theme and transform your form into a witch’s cauldron, grinning jack-o’-lantern, pumpkin pot, treat jar or offering vessel. Or leave Halloween behind and create something for year-round use - perhaps a botanical vessel, woodland-inspired pot, altar piece, creature or something entirely from your own imagination.

Add handles, feet, faces, vines, leaves, mushrooms or other sculpted details. Carve into the surface, add texture and markings, and use underglazes to bring your creation to life.

As we make, Carys will share a little of the folklore and old traditions behind Halloween and Samhain, exploring where some of the familiar symbols and customs came from and how they have changed as they travelled through generations and across continents.

You’ll be guided through a range of handbuilding, sculpting, carving and surface decoration techniques, making this workshop suitable for beginners as well as those with previous clay experience.

At the end of the workshop, you’ll be able to choose from a selection of studio glazes in different colours for the final finish of your piece. Your vessel will then be carefully dried and bisque fired, glazed in your chosen finish and fired for a second time.

Your finished vessel will be ready to collect from the studio approximately 2–3 weeks after the workshop.

✨ All clay, materials, glazing and firings are included. No previous pottery experience is needed.

Studio Address:
The Studio at Carys Martin Ceramics
Unit 11, 7–9 Grant Street, Cleveland