Sally concentrating hard on her pottery lesson!
Although officially I live in Cumbria, the wonderful Yorkshire Dales are on my doorstep. The Dales are famed for beautiful views and a range of outdoor pursuits, so being a local it’s not surprising the questions I’m asked most are ‘what can I do when it rains?’ and ‘what can I do that’s a bit different?’
Lucky for me and the visitors I advise, my list keeps on growing. My latest addition (which ticks both boxes) is a fun day out learning something new and completely relaxing – pottery making! Sitting dry and warm in the comfort of Bentham Pottery, a wonderful find on the edge of the Yorkshire Dales, a pottery class is certainly no everyday experience for most of us.
The Pottery Lesson: Getting started
We arrived and were greeted by Lee, co-owner of the Bentham Pottery with his Mum, who founded the workshop almost 50 years ago. I had no idea what to expect of this ‘experiential birthday gift’, having only once tried my hand in a pottery class at school years ago.
Lee wasn’t worried about throwing us straight in at the deep end and stuck us immediately on the pottery wheels. This might look simple from the outside, but in this case appearances are certainly deceiving.
First you have to ‘centre the clay’ and get it spot on in the middle of a wheel that is rotating at speed. Next you have to fashion the clay into a shape that wants to turn into a bowl, using a series of complex hand movements. And if that wasn’t enough, you must continually splash water onto the clay to keep in malleable (or in my case, onto the wheel so it flies straight back at me). Finally, you use the power of the wheel against the shape of your hands to fashion a bowl shape. Simple! Or so I thought…
The Pottery Lesson: The results
Lee was a fantastic teacher and could see immediately when we were doing something wrong. In the short space of an hour we’d created our first bowls with a feeling of immense pride and conviction that we were the next Grayson Perry’s of the pottering world.
The feeling of learning a new skill and creating something tangible with your own two hands is something quite rare for most of us with our computerised lifestyles.
Whether local or visiting on holiday it’s a wonderful experience, especially for those with kids (big or small) to entertain during the wet and cold seasons in the Dales – or even Lakes, which are ‘next door’.
For more information visit www.benthampottery.co.uk or contact me, your Cumbria local travel expert, for more ideas of pottery and other unusual holiday experiences in the north of England.
Happy Pottering!
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