Take time away from the usual demands of everyday life and join us at Aubourn Hall for Gathering Light, a seasonal pottery experience inspired by the gardens as they move towards winter.
Across three events, you can make, colour and illuminate your own ceramic lanterns. Spend time outdoors noticing what catches your curiosity, enjoy working with clay and colour, then come together as the afternoon darkens to see the finished lanterns lit.
There is no need to know anything about pottery or arrive with an idea. Karen Morrissey of Swallowbeck Potter will guide you through the techniques, with room to experiment and enjoy creating alongside others. Tea and cake are part of the Make workshop and the final Light gathering.
BOOK SEPERATLY OR ALL THREE TOGETHER
USE CODE: GatheringLight3
Each event can be booked seperately (below) or book all three together for £95, saving £12.50.
1) MAKE - 14 November - £65.00
Explore Aubourn’s winter gardens and make a small gathering of lanterns, with materials for up to three.
2) COLOUR - 28 November - £25 or £35
Decorate lanterns made at Make for £25, or join for £35 with one handmade, bisque-fired lantern supplied.
3) LIGHT - 12 December - £17.50
Gather for tea, cake and the shared lighting of the finished lanterns. Everyone is welcome; lanterns will be available to buy, but you do not need one to attend.
Session 1:
Gathering Light- Make
Make is the first workshop in the Gathering Light series, but you can enjoy it on its own. No pottery or artistic experience is needed.
We’ll begin in the gardens, whatever the weather. You might notice bare branches against the sky, rain on a leaf, a seed head or the sound of the wind. Photograph, sketch, collect a few ideas or simply look and listen. Back in the warmth, Karen will shows you how to build a lantern from slabs of clay. You can add pierced, printed, impressed or modelled details, drawing on whatever stayed with you outdoors. There is no design to copy.
Materials are provided for up to three lanterns. Your lanterns will be carefully dried and fired after the workshop. If you’re joining us for Gathering Light: Colour, they’ll be ready for you to decorate. If Make is your only pottery session, Karen will glaze and fire them for you.
Time: 10.30 am–3.00 pm
Tickets: £65, including materials, firing, tea and cake.
Session 2:
Gathering Light: Colour
Bring the lanterns you made at Gathering Light: Make, or join us for the first time and decorate a handmade lantern waiting for you. No pottery experience is needed.
Karen will introduce the colours and show you how to use them. You’ll have time to try combinations, follow the marks and textures in the clay, and decide what you’d like to bring out. You might draw on winter colours you noticed in the gardens, or choose something entirely your own.
There is room to experiment: firing can soften, deepen or change a colour in surprising ways. Karen will give you guidance as you work, with time to chat or simply become absorbed in decorating.
Your lanterns will be glaze-fired after the workshop, ready to illuminate at our Gathering Light: Light event or to collect afterwards.
Choose one of two sessions: 10.00 am–12.00 pm or 1.00–3.00 pm.
Tickets: £25 if you are decorating lanterns you made at Make; £35 if you are joining for the first time, including one handmade, bisque-fired lantern. Additional lanterns will be available to buy.
Session 3:
Gathering Light: Light
Come with a friend for tea, cake and a little time together before Christmas. We’ll illuminate the lanterns as a group, then enjoy them over warm drinks, conversation and perhaps a winter story. There will be room to sit quietly and take in the light, too.
This is the final gathering in the Gathering Light series, and you are welcome whether or not you came to Make or Colour. Finished lanterns by Karen will be available to buy if you would like to light one and take it home. There is no need to buy one to join us.
The shared lighting, tea and cake are at the heart of the afternoon. We’ll let the ideas and conversations from the earlier workshops help shape the rest, and share the full programme nearer the time. We’re also exploring a separate, optional mindfulness session beforehand.
Take your lantern home, or share it with someone dear to you. Light it again on an ordinary winter day and remember this gathering—and the small things that catch your eye, even in the darker months. Tickets: £17.50, including tea and cake. Time to be confirmed.
About Karen Morrissey
Gathering Light will be led by ceramic artist Karen Morrissey, working as Swallowbeck Potter. Karen’s practice is rooted in close observation of nature, curiosity about materials and an enjoyment of the unexpected things that happen when clay passes through the kiln.
Alongside her ceramic practice, Karen has spent 30 years working as an accredited buildings conservator. That experience has taught her to look carefully, work patiently and value the marks left by materials, time and human hands. She brings the same approach to her workshops: supportive, unhurried and interested in what each person notices and chooses to explore.