The Leach Pottery marks the end of 2023

2023 has been an important year for the Leach Pottery as we develop the plans for our two-year transformation which begins in April 2024. We take a look back on an exciting year for the Leach Pottery…

Learning and Participation

2023 has seen more than 4,000 participants join us to make with clay through the Schools, Families, Community and Adults programmes across the equivalent of 370 days of workshops! From experienced potters to groups who are working with clay for the first time, it has been a pleasure to welcome all to the Leach Pottery. Thank you to our community partners, contributing potters and participants for bringing clay to life this year!

Some highlights of 2023…

St Ives School Exchange to Mashiko

We were thrilled that a group of 10 students and two staff members from the St Ives School were able to make the journey to Mashiko this year as the friendship and ties between the Mashiko and Leach Potteries evolve. The Leach Pottery would like to express our sincere thanks to the Leach 100 funders, the wonderful staff at St Ives School who arranged the trip, Koi Isaka from the St Ives Gallery in Tokyo for his generous sharing of time and knowledge, and the students and their families from St Ives being part of the exchange.

Penryn Glaze Development Course

In partnership with Penryn College Chemistry department, we delivered a series of workshops for their years 8 and 9. The workshop introduced participants to the science behind glazes and each of the students, by the end of the workshop, had mixed five of their own glazes.

Social Prescribing Workshops

This is my favourite place to be. I feel calm here when I’m working with clay.

Social Prescribing Participant

2023 has seen the growth of our partnership with local GP surgeries to offer pottery workshops to Social Prescribing patients. The weekly workshops are part of our Community programme and have included throwing courses, hand-building projects and co-production of tableware.

Promas Plates

Promas Carers worked with potters to co-create a collection of chargers and plates as they experimented with different slip decoration approaches.

Trelya Cups

Participants from Trelya worked with the Leach Pottery to design and create a co-produced tableware range. Trelya is a charity based on the Treneere estate in Penzance that supports children and their families through health and wellbeing programmes. Once the participants brushed the pots with slip they then carved and drew into this surface to expose the clay surface underneath. The pots were then gas-fired at the Leach Pottery using the celadon glaze and are now in daily use at the Trelya Café!

Mud Club

This year we established the Mud Club (for ages 18-25) and the Community Studio evenings (ages 25 plus). These workshops are lively, curious, and full of the love of clay. We look forward to leading more in the coming year!

Adult Learning Programme

We look forward to welcoming participants to our Adult Learning programme which will be taking place at Newlyn School of Art in addition to in Bernard’s Studio at the Leach Pottery while our Schools, Families and Community programmes continue to take place in the community at the Leach Pottery museum.

Our 2024 Adult programme is open for bookings – see details here

Gallery and curatorial team

It’s been a busy year for the Entrance Gallery, which saw four solo exhibitions, including a sell-out show. We hosted further exhibitions across the Shop and Museum, and welcomed numerous visitors and collectors to the Leach Pottery.

In the Cube Gallery, we launched Leach Pottery: First Students a historical exhibition charting the early story of the Leach Pottery with a focus on some of our first students.

In September we opened a solo exhibition featuring the work of Clive Bowen marking his 80th birthday, celebrating his slip-decorated earthenware pots which have proved popular with collectors.

Planning is underway for shows in 2024 which will include a group exhibition showcasing the talents of our studio potters. Find out more here

We also welcomed Researcher-in-Residence Jordan Ward-Williams who spent nine weeks with us. The University of Cambridge-based research chemist has been making ceramics for more than seven years.

The project looked at sustainability from an environmental, financial and supply perspective, and explored the role and potential of different fuel sources in the glaze firing process and how the changing nature of local industry affects the sustainability of local materials. Explore the findings of his project on our Leach Pottery Blog.

In January 2024, the Leach Pottery is hosting an online Making Change Conference: Sustainability & Ceramic Practice. YOu can find out more and book your place here.

The Museum

Each year thousands of people visit the Leach Pottery museum, which tells the story of its founders Bernard Leach and Shoji Hamada and the pottery that has been on the same site for more than 100 years.

During 2023, we developed our plans for our new museum, café and hands-on activity spaces with design consultants Imagemakers. Over the autumn we carried out public consultation with our local and pottery communities, both in-person and online. We had 84 respondents who provided feedback on the themes, stories and concept designs, which enabled us to carry the designs forward to the next phase.  

The team has begun to collect the stories behind the Leach Pottery collected over the last 100 years, and the owners kind enough to share their stories. We will continue to develop our plans for the new-look museum throughout 2024. You can find out more in our short film The Leach Pottery transformation in under 60 seconds

Shop and commercial

We’ve had an extremely busy and productive year in our shop in St Ives and our online shop, thank you as always for your custom, we’re very grateful for all the support.

Here are some of our highlights…

Potter of the Week

We continued our Potter of the Week feature, which offered 10% off individual potters’ work, including Tomoo Hamada, Mark Titchiner, Amanda Brier and John Webb, along with newcomers to the Leach Pottery: Simon Kneebone and Helen Lee. In addition, we offered 10% off selected Standard Ware throughout the year to coincide with seasonal events including Shrove Tuesday, Mother’s Day and Easter. In the latter part of the year, we focused on a new feature: Pot Of The Week, which enabled us to showcase the diversity of a specific form such as mugs, bowls, jugs and tea bowls.

Second Sales

Our Seconds Sales have continued to be really busy and well received. We hold them on-site during the Easter and August Bank Holidays and this year, after the sales are over, we added a selection of Seconds Sales Online – which have proved very popular. Look out for more next year.

Online Exhibitions

As well as our regular promotions we presented a year of Online Exhibitions. This extended the reach of the work and enabled the wider public to view and buy from the exhibitions; these included an exhibition of work from the following: the Leach Studio: Studio_Space, Doug Fitch & Hanna McAndrew: An Ongoing Devotion, Lisa Hammond: Soda Alchemy, Isatu Hyde: Beauty Rooted in Use, Clive Bowen at 80, Niek Hoogland: Best Of Both Worlds, and work that Lead Potter Roelof Uys made during his residency to Japan: From Mashiko to St Ives.

Leach Pottery Standard Ware. Image: Leach Pottery 

Collaborations

We had the fortune of some lovely collaborations too: Artist Printmaker Lou Tonkin’s residency at the Pottery provided some wonderful lino prints and exclusive tea towels, all available to buy in our shop and online, and recently we collaborated with Christen Pears, whose beautiful home we used for our Christmas photo shoot.

Read more here: At Home with Leach Standard Ware

You can shop our latest collections in our Online Shop

The Pottery Studio

The studio pottery team has been heavily involved in the planning and design for the new pottery studio which will help increase production to keep up with demand for Leach Pottery Standard Ware. There will also be a new kiln shed and several projects are ongoing to improve sustainability.

The studio welcomed Amy Wilson as a new apprentice in 2023. The apprenticeship scheme is a two-year placement aimed at someone with little or no previous experience in ceramics.

Amy is our fourth apprentice and we hope to continue the scheme. Keep an eye on our website for further details.

Lead studio potter Roelof Uys spent three weeks teaching in Mexico as part of an international project that invites potters from different countries to participate. Roelof represented his native South Africa.

Capital Project

During 2023, we have been busy developing detailed plans for the new-look Leach Pottery, which will create new learning and production studios, expand exhibition, activity and retail spaces, and repair and refresh the historic pottery buildings. With a commitment to providing better facilities for our local audiences and a network of international potters, we will add a welcome space and cafe to support our growing range of courses, clubs, drop-in workshops, residencies and apprenticeships.

A planning application was approved in May 2023 for our development’s first phase, which permits us to replace Beagle Cross cottage with bespoke studios. Work will begin in April 2024. At the end of 2023, we submitted a second application for the next development phase and are waiting to hear from Cornwall Council in early 2024. 

You can read more on the plans for Leach Pottery here: Capital Project Update