Monthly Mud Club

Join my monthly Mud Club! If you’re wanting to start a peaceful hobby, grow your confidence with ceramics, learn about finding clay or simply hang out with friends, then this is the club for you.

Mud Club will be held on the first Tuesday of each month at Frida Cooper Ceramics in Pollard Yard. We will be working with wild clay sourced locally in Manchester as an effort to connect with the earth and learn to use sustainable materials in the practice of ceramics. No clay will be fired in the process of the workshop but each month I will prepare lots of workable wild clay to show off the material in its finest form. All equipment and tools will be provided, no experience needed just bring some good organic curiosity.

About the clay: with the permission of local landworkers I have sourced some fireclay from Oldham in Greater Manchester. Fireclay is sometimes called ‘brick clay’ and is a sedimentary clay commonly found below coal seams of the Carboniferous Period, where they were the base soil for the coal forests of that era. It’s gritty and sturdy, perfect for handbuilding or making bricks, which is what Manchester was once known for.

About me: My name is Abbie Fowler and I’m an artist interested in the relationship between art and ecology. Wild clay is a material that I have found to deepen my connection with the environment whether that is working at home or on my travels. I find clay everywhere I go now I know what to look for and it teaches me how the land is formed, which is something I love to share with others.