Phew what a busy Summer! 😮🌞Not only have we entertained the hoards @eastnorpottery HQ, the Flying Potter has been out and about, touring the UK, sharing the myriad benefits of working with clay with others.
We’ve met and worked with hundreds of people all over the West Midlands and beyond. Thank you to everyone we’ve met along the way - all the organisations, venues and of course the brilliant participants who make our job so interesting, inspiring and really really fun! 🤩
🍂 As we head into Autumn, our mobile studio will be back out on the road, working mostly indoors.😅Keep your eyes peeled, #theflyingpotter will be landing at a school or Early Years setting near you very soon!
#artineducation #creativecurriculum #eyfs #mobilepottery #eastnorpottery #fourwheelsonmywagon 😁
Satisfied to the core! 😁 The combination of favourite Japanese brush and creamy slip. This (🤞) and many other apple inspired sculptures will be displayed @eastnorpottery during the fabulous @herefordshireartweek 6 - 14 September 🩷
#slipdecoration #slipdecorating #terracotta #applecore #sudioceramics #gardensculpture #jonwilliamspotter #eastnorpottery #herefordshire #herefordshireartweek
We’re delighted to welcome back @jon_williams_potter for our 2026 show, who first exhibited with us in 2010. We often invite our artists and sculptors to visit us prior to the show, so that they can reconnect with the beautiful Old Rectory gardens, and get inspiration for their new work.
In Jon’s words…
“An inspiring planning meeting with Stephanie Cushing, the Curator @freshairsculpture led me to dig out and dust down my thrown disks. They first appeared in 2010 as part of the biannual Fresh Air Sculpture Exhibition at the Old Rectory, Quenington. The ceramic cymbals stacked vertically in two columns, inviting visitors to play them with beaters.
That was 15 years ago and since then the percussive disks have featured in different formats all over the country. They’ve hung in trees and rocked on table tops to kinetic and sonic effect.
I’m extremely pleased to have been selected for Fresh Air Sculpture 2026 and the disks may have another outing alongside the pieces I’m producing especially for the show. I’m considering a horizontal arrangement this time, encouraging visitors to spin and tap the articulated discs.”
It was lovely to see you again Jon, and we can’t wait to see your new work, alongside these glorious ceramic cymbals at next year’s show.
Jon Williams > The Flying Potter from Herefordshire
Jon recalls that at the age of 15 he encountered the head of his local art-school and in a blinding revelation, realised that ‘art’ could be a job!. He subsequently went on to study in Swindon & then in Bath, his experience culminating in a 1st class degree in ceramics and 3D design.
Pottery Courses at Eastnor Pottery
As well as designing and making, Jon collaborates with his wife and fellow potter @sarah_monk_ceramics to offer remarkable, and hugely popular pottery experiences from their Herefordshire studio, Eastnor Pottery @eastnorpottery
And they’re up! 🤗 My interactive percussive sculptures dug in and displayed @freshairsculpture Absolutely delighted with how they look (and sound) in the beautiful gardens at The Old Rectory Quenington. Huge thank you to team EP - @sarah_monk_ceramics and Grace played a blinder. The piece required a little more installation and cajoling than expected but deep onto extra time (we really were the last to leave the gardens 😮) we got the winner! Continuing the footy analogy 🤭the away support were a joy and delight to work with. We were made to feel very welcome and valued. Thank you Lucy, Steph and team for the superb Old Rectory hospitality ….them flapjacks!! 😋
Although The show doesn’t open for another month, the early installation allows for the sculptures to bed-in and be photographed for the catalogue.
Fresh Air 2026 begins Sunday 14 June and concludes (forever!) Sunday 5 July.
If you haven’t already purchased your tickets for the last ever @freshairsculpture you know where to go: Freshairsculpture.com 👍
🎥 😘 @sarah_monk_ceramics
#jonwilliamspotter #gardensculpture #eastnorpottery #interactiveart #freshairsculpture
Pears pears everywhere! Under wraps, on the wheels and stacked three deep in places. 🍐🍐🍐🍐🍐🍐
The latest batch of fruits that’ll be heading to @freshairsculpture in May. I promised Steph the curator x30 when we met last year and despite cracks, collapses and explosions (I’m sure I put a ventilation hole…🤔💥😳) I’m getting close.
Although on first sight it might not be ap-pear-ent (sorry!) but each fruit is crafted solely from sections thrown on the potter’s wheel. That’s a lot of throwing, turning, distorting, assembling and painting - each one is unique!
I can’t wait to see the pears in situ, all x30 of them laid out together on the beautiful lawns at The Old Rectory.
Fresh Air Sculpture takes place Sunday 14 June - Sunday 5 July 2026 at The Old Rectory, Quenington, Cirencester, Glos, GL7 5BN. Advance tickets can be purchased online from freshairsculpture.com
@freshairsculpture
#freshairsculpture #gardenceramics #eastnorpottery #jonwilliamspotter #sculptureexhibition
So Chuffed to feature on a set of x4 commemorative quilts commissioned by @craftspace_ to celebrate their 40th anniversary.
40 Objects For 40 Years was created by @stewarteaston and depicts seminal Craftspace moments down the years.
I’ve had the privilege and joy to work with Craftspace on many occasions and am represented twice on the quilts. Photo no1 illustrates a fantastic early years project that took place in 2005. I was one of three artists selected to work with very young children and their families at St Thomas Children’s Centre, exploring materials and tools. As a response to the practical sessions and a project legacy, each artist was tasked with creating an interactive resource for the participants to engage with - a treasure box!
Inspired by the way the children layered clay on top of floors, tables, toys (and each other!) I created a series of fired ceramic ‘heads’ for participants to add soft clay and paint slip…think pottery Mr Potato Head! 😁 Top marks to Stewart for succinctly capturing my x3 Clay Heads on his quilted masterpieces 🙌
The Potter’s wheel, a staple of my Flying Potter excursions gets a shout out too. (Photo no3) It represents wonder, accessibility and participation - everybody wants to have a go!
Stewart’s fabulous quilts can be seen @mac_birmingham alongside Made In The Middle: A Craftspace Touring Exhibition. Hurry hurry as the show ends Sunday 12 April.
#craftspace #40objectsfor40years #macbirmingham #quiltersgonnaquilt #jonwilliamspotter
Far from a dumping ground for the broken, discarded and disastrous, the Pottery garden @eastnorpottery is filled with examples of my work that for whatever reason have ‘outgrown’ the interior space. There’s 32 years worth, dotted amongst the borders and hedges. Just before the greenery really gets going, the warm and weathered terracotta is in full view and provides a beautiful contrast to the vivid shoots of Spring.
I’m always drawn to the outside pots at this time of year and take time to reflect and observe the gentle disintegration, patina and moss…lots of moss! It’s been so wet!! 🌧️
A proportion of my sculptures are intended to live outside and I ensure these pieces are protected to withstand most of what the British weather can throw at them…but the beautiful colours and surfaces afforded by lichen and the like has got me thinking 🤔
I have for a long time added coloured slips and engobes at leather hard stage to enhance the surface. What if I just left them naked? No slips, no glazes just the beautiful and raw fired earth. A rusty canvas for the elements to work their magic. 🧡🧡🧡
I can feel a new body of garden sculpture coming on…. gold fish anyone?😁
#jonwilliamspotter #eastnorpottery #gardenpottery #herefordshire #moss
Pot stalks! 🤷♂️ - sometimes ceramic, sometimes whittled sticks - little finials designed to add contrast or a point of interest to the pottery form.
I have experimented making the pots without stalks, but they lack something, look unresolved somehow.
On other occasions I’ve added a leaf/stalk combo but the result is too obvious. I’ve come to the conclusion, a single chord is just enough. More than a nod to the literal but affirming the abstract nature of the whole piece.
I currently have several of these pieces on show @glosguild in Cheltenham. The gallery is open 10am-5pm Monday to Saturday
Whittled additions courtesy of John Higgs 🪵 Snapped details @photopiauk 📷 🙌
#mixedmedia #studioceramics #jonwilliamspotter #eastnorpottery #madeinherefordshire
Well what a beautiful couple of Spring days we’ve experienced in the Shire 🌞 gorgeous warmth, dandy daffs and huge bumbles bumbling around the pottery garden 🐝
Found this thrown and assembled monster dipping its proboscis into the primula pot! 🌸🌼🌸
#gardensculpture #bumblebee #potterygarden #herefordshire #eastnorpottery
Not going to lie, this piece wasn’t the lightest to put together🏋️💪😮💨After lots of huffing, puffing expletives, and personal injury 😱😭(I am getting to old for this!) Ceramic Disks were united with their specially commissioned frame. I had no idea just how delightful they would sound and move…quite a moment 🥲 skilfully captured, as always by @sarah_monk_ceramics videographer, soulmate and as it turned out, nurse! 😩🤕
I Still need to play around with the arrangement and a little more tinkering with the frame, but things are most definitely heading in the right direction..and that direction is @freshairsculpture 14 June - 5 July 2026 hip hip (hernia) hurray!
#interactiveceramics #interactiveart #freshairsculpture #jonwilliamspotter #eastnorpottery
We are thrilled to welcome our two new guest exhibitors, Sarah Monk and Jon Williams founders and co-directors of Eastnor Pottery. Sarah and Jon met as young art students studying ceramics in Bath. Their eyes met over the potter’s wheel and the rest as they say…..
Sarah makes and designs small batch slipware. Her approach to potting is relaxed and playful, every piece is treated with an excitement and love of clay. Little pieces of art for your home, to use and cherish.
Jon makes ceramic sculpture and decorative items, the majority of which have some sort of interactive element. His pottery is designed to be played with, shaken, struck, rocked, submerged in water or filled with microprocessors, speakers and wires!
Together they also share their passion and enthusiasm for pottery with others by offering workshops.
Come and see their work, it’s beautiful AND fun!
We’re open Monday - Saturday.
#cheltenhamshopping #cheltenhamshops #britishceramics
Couple of Rocking Snails 🐌 fired up and ready to slide on down to @glosguild@sarahmonkceramics and myself have been invited by The Gloucestershire Guild to show our wares in their gorgeous Montpellier Gallery. We are guest makers for the merry months of March & April. 🎉🙏❤️
If you find yourself in Chelters over the next couple of months, rock up 🐌 pop-in and have a play with my interactive cerams. 😊
Still photography @photopiauk 🙌
#jonwilliamspotter #interactiveart #interactiveceramics #glosguild #cheltenham
