Herefordshire Art Week: h.Art

by Sarah Monk | Aug 28, 2025 | Exhibitions, News, Pottery Studio Life

Eastnor Pottery Open Studios

It’s not to go until artists and makers all over the county open their doors for Herefordshire Art Week 2025. This marvellous Open Studios event takes place 6 – 14 September and involves 428 artists exhibiting in 138 venues and Eastnor Pottery is proud to be taking part once more!

What will I be exhibiting?

I’m making lots of slipware pieces inspired by nature, ceramic history and the softness of clay.

Wheel thrown cups, plates and bowls. Large flower bricks, aswell as some miniature ones too! They are constructed from soft slabs of terracotta clay.

Slips and colourful underglazes are brushed and splattered on my surfaces, building layers of decoration and colour. Sgraffito flowers are freely etched into the clay, making pieces pleasingly tactile.

In a nutshell – I make little pieces of art for the home, to use and cherish.

Who else will be exhibiting?

Jon Williams (aka my husband and fellow potter) will also be showing his interactive and decorative one offs constructed entirely from sections made on the potter’s wheel. Some pieces are intended to live outside, others are designed to be handled, shaken, tapped or submersed in water.

If there was a common thread through both of our work it would be the notion of playfulness, both in creation and fired outcome.

Inside the studio at Eastnor Pottery. To the front of the photo there are some freshly thrown cups and saucers made by Sarah Monk.

Large fresh pink peonies diplayed in an oval flower brick made by Sarah Monk. The flower brick is cream with bold painted blue flowers.

h.Art Opening times at Eastnor Pottery

We’re open 11am – 5pm throughout – come join us for a complementary cuppa and peruse our pots.

Introduction to the Potter’s Wheel Classes

Each morning at 11am, we’ll be running one of our very popular and entertaining Introduction to the Potter’s Wheel Classes. If you are interested in booking please tap the link!

We look forward to seeing you!

Sarah x

Shelves at Eastnor Pottery filled with the work of Sarah Monk Ceramics. A pottery mug hangs on a hook in the forefront, it's teal with drawn flower motifs, green handle and cream and brown inside. Set behind the mug there's an oval flower brick thats cream with flowers etched on the outside. It contains a display of small fresh flowers. There's a shelf above which contains from left to right, a large teal plant pot with big brown dots, a small green cereal bowl with small brown dots, next to this there's 2 cereal bowls; 1 yellow with etched flowers and the other white with etched flowers. on the edge of the picture there's a corner of a teal flower brick withy etched flowers.

A distant view of Eastnor Pottery as seen from Eastnor Triangle, in the centre of the village.

Herefordshire Open Studios: H.Art

by Sarah Monk | Sep 11, 2022 | News, Uncategorized

From the 3rd ’till the 11th September 2022 it’s Herefordshire Art Week, or H.Art as it is fondly known!

work in progress studio shot of slipware bt Sarah Monk Ceramics

flower brick work in progress ata eastnor pottery by sarah monk

#herefordshireartweek heralds an exciting 9 days of open studios. There’s over 130 artistans taking part. Here at Eastnor Pottery, myself and my husband/ fellow potter Jon Williams are venue at 121.

All welcome, please come and browse our studio shop, take a look at our pottery experiences teaching space and talk all things pottery!

Potter’s Wheel Classes Re-open!

by Sarah Monk | Jun 29, 2021 | Potter's Wheel Courses

April saw the re-opening of our pottery classes and courses at Eastnor Pottery. So wonderful to invite people back into our studio and teach the delights of the potter’s wheel. We are fortunate to have a large studio and a beautifully decorated, bake-off style ‘Potting Tent’ marquee. Our studio is set in the rural county of Herefordshire and is a stone’s throw from the Malvern Hills and the picturesque market town of Ledbury.

The fornt door and garden full of flowers at Eastnor Pottery in the spring

The interior of the potting tent marquee decorated with bunting and bistro tables

Slipware Studio Pottery

by Sarah Monk | Feb 17, 2020 | Pottery Studio Life

I’m really into making slipware. I use terracotta clay because it has a deep, rich depth of colour and is a dream to throw with. It feels like melting chocolate through my fingertips.

I’m very interested in surfaces. When you brush white slip over terracotta it has a deep earthy quality. I work quickly on this, scratching into it (sgraffitto) with random scribbles and doodles. It’s an instinctive and intuitive process. I do not deliberate or labour over the surfaces. I like to mess them up a little too with a few random splats of coloured slip or underglaze.

It’s all about the human element for me, layering up surfaces, rather like a painter at a canvas…. mark making and doodling.

I finish off my pieces with a clear lead-free earthenware glaze. This makes them smooth to touch and also durable for everyday use.

How I first got into ceramics.

by Sarah Monk | Feb 17, 2020 | inspiration, Pottery Studio Life

At the age of four my parents got a dog. I loved going on dog walks, strolling through the fields and playing in streams. I can remember finding clay, I took some home in my hand. I picked out the stones and played with the gritty clay.

Growing up, I was surrounded by ceramics as my Dad collected Antiques. We had glass fronted cabinets at home that would rattle and chink when I walked past. Piles of ‘Miller’s Guide’ books to look through. My Mum also collected a slipware, more commonly known as motto ware. Most of it was made by Watcombe. She had a collection of over 500 pieces adorning two pine dressers. I enjoyed picking them up, reading all the sgraffitto sayings and running my fingertips over the slip -railed patterns.

Doing a degree in Ceramics at Bath Spa University seemed like a natural progression for me. There I met Jon Williams, a fellow ceramics student and eventually my husband to be. We were hard working students and made the most of all the studio time provided.

Jon and I decided to set up a studio together. We settled for beautiful rural Herefordshire. An old redundant cottage on the Eastnor Castle Estate became available.