Does your WI give an Annual Bursary?
Trevone WI gave a Bursary last year and below is a presentation from the winner given at this month’s WI meeting.
My course at Leach Pottery last year
Last year I was lucky enough to receive a WI bursary towards a ceramics course at the Leach Pottery in St Ives.
The Leach Pottery is famous for being established by Bernard Leach who lived from 1887 to 1979, and is regarded as being the “Father of British studio pottery”. As a young man he lived and travelled in Japan and learnt about the ways the Japanese created ceramics. When he returned to England in 1920 he joined a colony of artists in St Ives and established the Leach Pottery.
Leach preferred simple and useful forms of pottery unlike the pots being mass produced in factories in the north of England in the 1920s. Leach had a huge influence on how ceramic style developed. Many potters were apprenticed at the Leach Pottery. Examples of his work are displayed in many galleries and museums worldwide today.
The Leach Pottery that Bernard Leach built is still in operation and now includes a museum displaying many pieces by him and his students. It also has teaching spaces where ceramics courses are run attracting students from all over the world. I particularly wanted to study there because of its history and reputation.
The course I attended ran on Wednesday evenings for 2.5 hours over 6 weeks from late September to late October. It was to teach throwing at intermediate level and was actually held in the room Bernard Leach used as his personal studio. The course covered the making of tall cylinder shapes to transform into mugs and jugs, pulling handles, throwing of large bowls and making pots with galleried lids and knobs, all in Bernard Leach’s standard ware style. Generally we learned to throw with larger heavier amounts of clay than the 4 of us on the course were used to.
It was hard work getting to the course, leaving home at 4.30pm, driving up and down the often closed and diverted A30 in the dark and rain, and returning about 10pm and eating a sandwich in the car for my supper. I was always relieved to be home safely but thoroughly enjoyed and appreciated my time at the studio. My throwing improved, I learned a better way of using my hands to pull up the clay and generally feel more confident now throwing with larger amounts of clay.
We weren’t able to keep everything we made on the course as often we had to cut them in half to look at the thickness. I have brought a few pieces that I made as examples.
I am grateful to the WI for helping me afford to attend this course and, if you think there is something you’d like to learn, I would recommend putting your name in the hat for a bursary. You never know where it might lead!
If you would like e more information on running a Bursary for your WI contact apile@cornwallwi.org.uk