Sunken Studio

29/05/2026

Last week, Nova gave a live demo and Q&A for our members on slipcasting, exploring how modular forms are planned, divided into sections, and carefully reassembled.

During the session, she demonstrated how simple tools and accessible materials can be used to create complex but studio-friendly plaster moulds, using an approach designed to be practical, repeatable, and achievable without specialist equipment.

Her new three-day course, Modular Moulds, builds on these methods, focusing on low-tech plasterwork techniques that can be continued beyond the course, whether at home or in the studio.

Pottery in Leeds South Bank
→ 6-8 June · 3 days · 15 hours
→ No prior mould-making experience required
→ Book now via https://www.sunkenstudio.co.uk/courses/modular-moulds-plaster-mould-making

25/05/2026

SAVE THE DATE: 26 July 11:00- 15:00
Come for a browse, a chat, or just a good nosy.

Pottery in Leeds

22/05/2026

18/05/2026

Our six-week Foundations course is designed to help you build confidence week by week. For the first four weeks, you’ll focus on your chosen pathway, either throwing or handbuilding, giving you time to develop a regular practice and get comfortable with the material.

In week 5, the groups cross over for an experimental session. Throwing students move to the bench to alter and adapt their forms, while handbuilding students spend time on the wheel in a relaxed, exploratory session.

The course finishes in week 6 with glazing and surface decoration, bringing everything together with enough structure, guidance, and support to help you continue beyond the course.

Pottery in Leeds South Bank | Book via https://www.sunkenstudio.co.uk/courses/foundations-in-pottery-making

11/05/2026

From demolition waste to a sustainable surface.

Next month, Friday 5 June, we are hosting the ‘Material Response: shaping sustainable practices from clay and waste’ Symposium, concluding a six-week co-research programme directed by Chris Crawford and the Material Cognition Research Group at the University of Leeds, led by academics Moyra Derby () and Will Rea (), and funded by Ignite 2026 ().

They've been investigating how recycled clay derived from construction waste can be used to craft less extractive ways of making both in ceramics and earthen building techniques.

The day brings together policy makers, engineers, and artists to pull back the curtain on cross-disciplinary collaboration. We will also be hosting a research in progress exhibition featuring work by selected speakers, students and other collaborators.

Full speaker list arriving soon, book now→ https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/material-response-shaping-sustainable-practices-tickets-1987074798212

Pottery in Leeds South Bank






corte

04/05/2026

"If you’ve been in the studio, you’ve probably already met Nova. She’s been here since 2019 and is now a core part of its everyday rhythm.

Modular Moulds has grown from her ongoing presence and the way she works through making slowly and deliberately. She sketches ideas out on paper, sits with problems, and tests them until they feel resolved in use, not just in theory.

That approach shapes the course, which treats mould making as something adaptable rather than fixed. It’s about building workable systems from constraints and learning how to think through making over time.

Pottery in Leeds

Modular Moulds | 6–8 June | www.sunkenstudio.co.uk/courses/modular-moulds-plaster-mould-making

27/04/2026

Just tell me how it works.
If you crave rules and foundations over guesswork, you’ll find that glaze testing is a road of small, steady adjustments. It is about changing a single material and noticing the subtle shifts in movement and surface. There is no magic here, just visible structure and the quiet transformation of heat.

Pottery in Leeds | Next Make a Glaze 10–12 August
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