The Armidale Pottery Club is throwing open its doors to the public this weekend. Introductory workshops will be held on Saturday and Sunday at just $50 per day. The special weekend coincides with the Armidale Autumn Festival and will give the public a come-and-try, beginner experience with access to the considerable resources and expertise of the pottery club.
Club Spokesperson, Carl Merten said that there will be wheel work, slab building and sculpture workshops. “It should be a really exciting opportunity for anyone interested in getting some mud on their hands, exploring their creative side and going home with something that they’ve made themselves.”
“Our workshops will be open to anyone from teenagers to octogenarians,” he said. “We will also cater for more advanced potters who want to refine a particular skill.”
“We have some very talented and experienced people in the Armidale Pottery Club who are specialists in distinct areas. Rhonda Stachiw will be doing wheel work, while Joan Relke and I will be doing sculptural work.”
Mr Merten said that pottery is a very therapeutic artistic pursuit. “Working with a very tactile material like clay can have a Zen quality to it. One gets immersed in the activity.”
The introductory workshops will be held in the home of the Armidale Pottery Club; an unusual out-building on the Beardy Street (rear) side of the Armidale Aquatic Centre. It can be accessed from the Aquatic Centre car park, off Dumaresq Street or via the pedestrian suspension bridge from Beardy Street. They will run from about 9am to 5pm each day.
For further information or to become a pottery club member, contact Beth Ley on: 6772 5358 or Rhonda Stachiw on 6772 3236 (AH).
Story: Gary Fry
