Clay workshop
Led by Ruth Elizabeth Jones

Saturday 7 December
12-3pm

Booking required – tickets available on a sliding scale
 £7 | £5 | £2

No previous experience of clay work is necessary
Suitable for children age 8+  
(Any children under 16 must be accompanied by an adult)

Book to attend

Build and decorate your own small vases or bowls in this clay workshop led by Moniaive-based ceramist Ruth Elizabeth Jones. 

Taking inspiration from Chiara Camoni’s wonderful Vasi Farfalla (Butterfly Vases), participants will be able to make their own small vases or palm pots, using slab building techniques, which they can then shape and decorate using a range of tools and processes. 

Chiara’s Vasi Farfalla are simple vase forms that feature shapes and details suggestive of animals, birds and insects – wings, beaks, ears, antenae appear to emerge from the surface of the clay. Chiara has compared the metamorphosis of the butterfly with how she brings her vases into being, describing a creative process that is delicate, at times nerve-wracking and always magical. Of her Vasi, Chiara has said: ‘I make a vase and I remake the world.’
 

In the workshop, we will work with terracotta clay, making bowls and vessels that fit in the hand to height of about 10cm . Ruth will bisque fire everything made in the session in her own studio kiln, and return it to CAMPLE LINE ready for collection the following week.

All materials and tools will be provided, along with light refreshments. 

You can find out more about Chiara’s exhibition murmur, buzz, hiss and rub here. 

A small, sandy-looking art piece made of unpolished, slightly damp clay. The body is narrow and straight, nearly small enough to grasp, and the head is a swirl of hand-sculpted shapes resembling seahorses. Inside the vase, tall enough to be visible over the clay headpiece, strands of flowers' ash grow.

Ruth Jones’ affinity with clay has been lifelong. After studying in the Midlands in the 1980s, she established studios firstly in Derby and then in rural Southwest Scotland where she continues to live and work. Her ceramic practice centres on the vessel form. She builds clay vessels using coil-building techniques that date back to matriarchal Neolithic pottery cultures, and her work makes ongoing reference to the female ceramic record.

In 2025, Ruth’s work will be included in Hag: Knowledge, Power and Alchemy through Craft, curated by Fife Contemporary for Dunfermline Carnegie Library and Galleries. The exhibition will feature the work of 13 women craft artists from across Scotland, and has ambitious aims to challenge societal prejudices and foster a deeper understanding of the rich tapestry of experiences that women who engage intensively with their craft bring to contemporary culture.

A woman cradling a textured dark brown vase roughly the size of a large, wide fish bowl. The photograph is taken against a dark background, and cast in moody lighting.