Earlier this year I visited Sunken Studio,
which is an absolutely beautiful workspace in Roundhay in Leeds, run by
Rebecca. I met Rebecca back in 2013 when I was working at the Leeds College of
Art (now Leeds Arts University). Rebecca taught and ran the Object and Spatial Design pathway on the
Foundation Diploma, while I was on the MAGPi Pathway.
She now solely runs Sunken Studio, where she delivers thoughtful workshops - which are so much more than learning how to construct an object. Read though her insightful blog, which will not only keep you up to date with the happenings at Sunken Studio - but where she writes passionately about process, play and technique - knowledge and insight that she openly shares with you as you indulge yourself in the world of clay and making. Since my visit Sunken Studio has growth from strength to strength, holding workshops in North Yorkshire,
collaborating with Colours May Vary in Leeds and Mauds House in Skipton and currently selling ceramic jewellery at a pop up shop in Headingely.
Rebecca invited me into the studio to apply
my illustrations on to her ceramics to use as examples in her up and coming
workshops. Working in a beautiful space, the hours flew by as I spent a Saturday applying my characters into ceramics. Apart from going to a 'paint-your-own-pot' cafe-type set up in York a few years ago, I haven't had much experience translating my illustrations on to ceramics. I have always admired the work of Vicky Lindo and more recently Alex Sickling - as well as following an army of illustrators/ceramicists over on Instagram. So it was great fun to give it a go myself, under Rebecca's guidance.
Over lunch, we had an energising conversation
about craft, running workshops, learning through making and art and our shared interest of design
education. Rebecca was telling me about
a workshop that she runs with a local primary school, which is pure
No Outcome. No Outcome is an ideology manifest as a workshop series which I run
at Nottingham Trent University, based on the assumption that assessment kills innovation,
and students should be given the time and space to make and play outside of
their assessed work. She works with the pre-primary school students giving them
lumps of clay which they play and make with, then fold it up and put it away.
She said that at the start they were hiding in the corner, crying out of
frustration that they couldn’t take anything that ‘real’ home to show their
parents. They were frustrated that what they were making wasn’t recognisable and that they couldn’t roll out the clay. But, slowly and surely they began to
work with it, to roll it out and to play. They were becoming more dexterous. I
really enjoyed this story, making links to No Outcome – the clear emotional
reaction to not being able to have something that looked like what they
imagined, that they put value on things looking like existing objects or the
fact that an object had to be constructed for there to be any value in the
activity was really interesting. Where has that come from? Why do some Higher
Education students feel that way too? Is it so ingrained that for something to
have value it must be something that is made when the value comes from the
practice, the process and the skills that they help to develop. The things we
cannot obviously document. I loved hearing about how the pre-primary school
students use the clay to solve problems, to become more co-ordinated and confident. It is a shame that these activities at school are seen more and more as extras as anything but 'core', when solving problems through making, through play, through exploring the constraints of materials is so important, for so many reasons and the lessons and skills learnt can be so transferable. I think I would be lost without the practical, problem solving escape of the art room and the home economics block at school and, to me, it feels horrifying that these ways of learning are becoming seen as 'extras' when to many they are vital.
Certainly food for thought - and this is what I mean by spending time at Sunken Studio, you get so much more than making a pot. Although coming back to collect the fired results was thrilling and nervous - my favourite being these cat tiles which (I think) look great! I've just moved into a new home and I can't wait to incorporate them somewhere into the redecoration.
You can find a series of workshops at Sunken Studio on Rebecca's website.
Follow Sunken Studios on Instragram @sunkenstudioleeds
Go and say hello at the Carousel in Headingley until the 9th Dec.
