Wild Pottery - Earth Pigments

Name: Wild Pottery - Earth Pigments
Start: 2026-05-28T10:30:00+01:00
End: 2026-05-30T17:00:00+01:00
Location: Dernwood Farm Wild Campsite

Schedule

Thu, 28 May, 2026 at 10:30 am to Sat, 30 May, 2026 at 05:00 pm

UTC+01:00

Location

Dernwood Farm Wild Campsite | Laughton, EN

An immersive three days in the woods to dig and process wild clay, make your own pots and then decorate them with earth pigments. you’ll learn how to successfully fire them in a clamp kiln.
Wild Pottery connects you to our ancient ancestor potters. There’s widespread archaeological evidence of low-fired, painted earthenware from Neolithic times. It’s still a living tradition in some parts of the world.
What you’ll learn
How to dig, process and prep wild clay for a clamp kiln firing. The ‘what, why, how’ of clamp kilns.
How to make pots using hand-building techniques that allow you to create a variety of forms.
How to paint your pots with earth pigments.
Day 1
Dig clay onsite and prep it so that it’s strong enough to survive the clamp kiln. You’ll make a couple of items, using various hand-building techniques, including simple moulds.
Earth pigments are provided as paint to decorate your pots. You’ll learn which natural pigments work on pottery, and how to prep and apply them so they’re permanent on your pots. You’ll have the opportunity to make your own paint brushes from natural wild materials.
On this course we don’t go into the details of finding clay in the landscape nor the technicals of temper (these are taught on Wild Pottery Smoke Cloud). This means there’s more time on this course for the actual making.
Day 2
We’ll work together to set up the clamp kiln, which includes digging, chopping, shovelling and foraging.
Once the kiln is going, we’ll keep a close eye on it for the first few hours to monitor its progress. You’ll learn how to read the signs that indicate what’s happening under the mound of earth covering the fire and the pots.
The kiln burns overnight and into the next day. If you’re camping onsite you can observe its progress at intervals.
Day 3
Once the pots are cool enough we’ll unearth them.
You’ll learn to read how the firing went by what remains of the clamp kiln and fuel, and by the pots themselves. As on all Wild Pottery courses, you’ll ‘disappear’ the firing (the clamp kiln) so that we leave no trace.
Wild Pottery Surgery: bring any wild pottery you’ve made outside of the course, as there will be time for Ruby to answer your questions / troubleshoot any issues.
If you’re interested in learning the in-depth technicals of wild clay and temper, my Wild Pottery Smoke Cloud course is for you as a starting point.

Cost £360

Full course description here https://nativehands.co.uk/wild-pottery-level-2/