Making Together: What happened? – Clay

5 weeks of free workshops with Jon Williams and Joanna Dawidowska
Aston, Birmingham
September – October 2018

Makers Jon Williams and Joanna Dawidowska led the third set of  Making Together workshops  at Birmingham Settlement, focusing on clay.

Participants of all ages had the chance to get messy as they explored clay in its different states; wet, slip , leather hard and fired and tried out techniques of coiling, throwing and press moulding. Families had the chance to work individually and collaboratively and it was great to see their growing skills and concentration.

A young girl watches liquid clay drip onto the potters wheel.
Lifting a bowl form the potter's wheel. Hands wet with clay.
A young boy uses a plastic tool to make marks in a clay vessel.

“Who’d have thought you could paint with clay!”

A little girl explores throwing clay and plastic tools onto a plastic sheet.
A baby, lying on a plastic sheet, is handed a lump of clay to play with.
A mix of baby, toddler and adult hands all helping to throw a pot on the potter's wheel.

“It is nice to get out of the house and do things.” Participant

“That was great, I really enjoyed it. That was my first time I will get my husband to come back and have a go next week .”

A boy pretends to use a wet clay bowl as a drinking cup.
A young girl presses her fingers into wet clay.
Hands working together at the potters wheel.

snakes on the floor         small balls of clay         watching         handle         spout         tasting         soft         poking        cutting         taking
finger on wheel           studying and thinking         stamping and rolling spinning

permission to get messy         joy         joining         self direction         blending         painting         watchful and waiting          conversations
helping each other          dexterity          respectful          transporting         parents leading         mark making         hands touching         reach

Hands holding a wet lcay pot, just off the potters wheel.
#makingtogether


Where Next

Various materials lie on the table with 3 hammers.

Making Together: What happened? – with women living in refuge

Read about exploring metal with Rita Patel and Melanie Tomlinson.

An older man works with a young boy hammering a metal punch.

Making Together: What happened? – Metal

See what happened at the metal workshops.

A small boy holds a pices of wet clay and pushes his fingers into it to make a small pot. The image shows adult hands working with the childs hands.

Treasure Boxes

From archive 2005: year-long residency for very young children and their parents/carers from St Thomas Early Excellence Children’s Centre in

An older man works with a young boy hammering a metal punch.

Making Together

Archive 2019: Read about artists discovering materials with young children and families.



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