Carys Martin Ceramics
Day Workshop Sat 20th Sept - Witch’s Garden Guardian: Crafting Faces of the Otherworld
Day Workshop Sat 20th Sept - Witch’s Garden Guardian: Crafting Faces of the Otherworld
Couldn't load pickup availability
Summon the Spirit of the Season: Sculpt Your Own Witch’s Garden Guardian
As the veil thins and the wheel turns toward Samhain, step into the enchanted studio and awaken ancient energies through the art of clay. In this day-long workshop, you’ll sculpt a powerful guardian spirit—a Green Witch, Forest Crone, Horned God, or Green Man—to watch over your garden and channel the rhythms of nature, death, and renewal.
Guided by ceramicist and creative Diane, you’ll learn to breathe life into clay using traditional hand-sculpting techniques. Whether you carve a wrinkled woodland witch, a shadowy stag-faced god, or a leafy forest familiar, your plaque will be a sacred symbol of protection and seasonal magic.
What You'll Learn:
-
How to build a simple armature to support your clay face
-
Techniques for sculpting witchy, mythical, or naturalistic facial features
-
Ways to add symbolic adornments—antlers, leaves, vines, crystals, feathers, or bones
-
Tips on refining your sculpture and giving it rich personality
Once complete, your piece will be slow-dried and fired in the kiln. Your terracotta guardian will be ready for collection in a few weeks, weather-safe and ready to gather moss and magic in the turning year. For a truly witchy touch, apply a mix of buttermilk and moss to welcome an ancient-looking patina.
This is more than a craft—it's a spell made solid, a face in the earth, and a companion to your sacred space.
What’s Included:
All tuition, materials, use of tools, and kiln firings are included. Just bring your imagination, your witchy spirit, and a willingness to get a little muddy. Feel free to wear your favorite cloak—or just something old and comfortable.
Please Note:
This course requires a minimum of 4 attendees to run.
Due to the nature of the workshop, catch-up sessions cannot be offered. Please ensure you're available for the full day.
Meet you teacher Diane -
From an early age, Diane’s world was steeped in creativity. Encouraged by her parents to explore the natural world through art, Diane developed a lifelong connection to the organic beauty of nature—a theme that continues to inspire her ceramic work today. Her mother, a self-taught printing in the traditional English style, and her father, a painter and restorer who worked on the vintage circus collection of Barnum & Bailey, instilled in her a deep appreciation for craftsmanship and storytelling through art.
Professionally, Diane has spent over 21 years as a pastry chef, currently working at the Palazzo Versace on the Gold Coast, with part of her role to create show stopper displays modelled out of chocolate. Alongside her culinary career, she has spent the last eight years developing her skills in ceramics, with a particular passion for sculpture and hand-building techniques. Her daily work teaching pastry chefs sculptural techniques in chocolate has naturally deepened her understanding of form, texture, and creative teaching—skills she now brings into her clay practice.
Diane’s ceramic art is heavily influenced by her Celtic heritage and a deep respect for the natural world. Themes of ancient stone circles, the Green Man, and the cycle of life and nature are woven throughout her work, reflecting her belief that we come from the earth and will one day return to it.
As she continues to work as a pastry chef, Diane is also expanding her artistic practice, blending her discipline, creativity, and love for teaching into a growing career in ceramics. I am so excited to have her join The Studio team!
