When was the last time you played with mud? As in, plunged your hands into a squidgy, oozy ball of clay, allowing it to coat your hands and get under your nails as you squash and roll it between your fingertips?
For many people, the answer is probably during your school days. But for artist-makers Sarah Monk and Jon Williams, this is how they spend every day.
‘We’ve been working with clay since our childhoods,’ says Jon. ‘We always say it’s a long time to be playing with mud!’
It’s a casual way to describe the careers of two artists who met while studying ceramics at Bath Spa University and have shown and sold pieces at prestigious craft fairs like Handmade Chelsea. But having fun with pottery is precisely what the pair behind Eastnor Pottery are all about.
They’ve been hosting pottery workshops and classes from a tiny cottage on the Eastnor Estate since 1994, when, fresh out of art school, they turned up in Ledbury looking for a space to practice their work.
‘We’d been looking around a different place, but the moment the guy showing us around heard we were potters he was like, “Woah! I have the place for you”,’ says Jon. ‘It turned out, the directors of the castle estate had been talking about getting artists, craftspeople and creatives into the redundant estate buildings. So, we were in the right place at the right time.’
Thirty years later, the cottage has been transformed. Bunting is strung across the crumbling walls, painted powder blue by Sarah, and every shelf and windowsill is lined with brightly coloured, carefully shaped porcelain pieces – all made by Sarah and Jon, who still use the space as their studio. It feels joyful, light. Like you’ve fallen into a fairytale cottage that smells faintly like paint and coffee.
‘We see ourselves as artist-makers rather than production potters,’ says Sarah, as we pick up (and play with) various pieces made by her and Jon. ‘But luckily, we’re very happy to engage and stand up and teach.’
After arriving at Eastnor, the pair quickly cottoned on to the fact that, while they were selling pieces, they needed to create another income stream. And so, they landed on pottery workshops – which they immediately fell in love with.
‘The best part about teaching is seeing the joy on people’s faces,’ says Jon. ‘They just light up. And that's our passion, just as much as the making.’
‘We feel we empower people, don't we?’ adds Sarah. ‘You give them memories and magic moments. And then it's something that they have forever. Because if you throw a pot, you have that muscle memory forever.’
To paraphrase the old adage: if you teach a man, woman, hen party or group to throw, they’ll play with mud for a lifetime.