We are excited to announce SSW’s Open Weekend 2026.
Saturday 12 and Sunday 13 September
10am – 4pm
Drop in making sessions: Saturday, 10am – 12 midday and 2pm – 4pm
Come along to SSW and check out what some of our local artists and makers have been up to in the workshops. There will be an opportunity to meet a wide range of local artists, see some of our workshop spaces and take part in some relaxed making sessions in our Community Making Space.
Tea and coffee will be flowing from our recently renovated bothy kitchen – so you can help yourself to a cuppa, come and meet the artists and if the sun is shining relax in our Materials Garden.
You can also drop in to the Community Making Space to test out making paper and clay, incorporating locally grown materials. No need to sign up, these sessions are drop in and will run on the Saturday from 10am – 12 midday and 2pm – 4pm. No experience necessary, making sessions are free – donations for materials excepted.
During the Open Weekend you will be able to meet with or see work by: Donna Murray, Ellie Charman, _ily_norris, Jane Spence, Jessica Crisp, Lewis Morrison, Paul Webber and Thrawn Pots.
Find out more information about some the artists below:
Donna Murray is a disabled emerging multidisciplinary artist and ceramicist based in the north of Scotland.
Rooted deeply in the natural world, her practice is informed by a lifelong relationship with wild landscapes and a background in forestry, conservation and foraging.
Working primarily with clay and gathered natural materials, she creates both functional and sculptural pieces exploring our connection to land, ecology and the more-than-human world through tactile, intuitive and organic forms.
rootsandcadence.com
ssw.org.uk/ceramics-subscribers-blog-donnah-murray-roots-and-cadence
Dx (she/her) Thrawn Pots enjoys practising and exploring fundamental techniques like coiling and throwing and is excited by experimenting with different glaze effects. She is also intrigued by the beautifully varied and unexpected results from smoke-firing in a simple fire-pit. Her current project is a series of pots inspired by traditional Palestinian clay water vessels – ‘jarrah’ (الجرة).
etsy.com/uk/shop/ThrawnPots
ssw.org.uk/ceramics-subscribers-blog-thrawn-pots/
Ellie Charman calls herself a dabbler in clay.
Ellie says: There are so many different ways in which one can explore this medium, and my ADHD mind has a scattergun approach to everything that is on offer. SSW provide a wonderful opportunity to be creative in so many different ways be it in clay, or glazing, or different ways of firing.
I love being surrounded by like minded folk and seeing their creativity. I bounce off their energy and it gets absorbed into my work. I just wish I could spend more time on it each week than I am able.
Jane Spence is a multi-disciplinary Scottish artist currently rediscovering the tactile and grounding process of working with clay.
Jane’s practice centers on the therapeutic qualities of form and mark-making, using ceramics as a medium for intuitive exploration, for embracing the unintentional and enjoying the sensory rhythm and the energy of the process.
Working within a community of fellow makers, Jane finds the studio at SSW a welcoming space for shared curiosity.
Jessica Crisp studied Printmaking at Gray’s School of Art, graduating in 2007 and for the past 13 years has worked as a Print technician and tutor. Throughout this time Jessica has made work and exhibited nationally and internationally.
She combines printmaking and ceramics to make functional pieces, exploring experimental processes to make pots with her printed drawings and poems.
instagram.com/jesscrisp1
Lewis Morrison‘s work is concerned with the fragility and delicacy of natural stone. Despite its associations with weight, permanence and strength. He seeks to reveal its quieter, more fragile qualities, challenging expectations of solidity and endurance.
Lewis makes sculptures that explore intimacy, tactility and material sensitivity whilst challenging assumptions of permanence and strength.
Visitors will see carefully carved forms shaped by both intention and discovery. Discover works intended to be experienced through proximity, touch, and quiet reflection.
Paul Webber loves using his hands, head and heart to create pieces from clay.
He says: I enjoy throwing and playing with forms, surface texture and colour. I want to encourage more boys and men into being creative, playing and making things. I hope that this can help with mental health issues faced by men and open up new avenues for them.
Please get in contact if you would like more details.
email: paulwebber81@hotmail.com
_ily_norris takes great pleasure in the simple, repetitive movements and processes that naturally unfold whilst playing with clay. A conscious effort to focus on slowing, and returning to traditional ways, is rewarded with the time and opportunity to rediscover and appreciate beauty in simplicity. Whether hand building or throwing, the concentration required feels all encompassing and restorative. With so much influence over the medium, hands can flit from creative to destructive, and back again, in an instant, simply by altering the strength, power or force exerted through touch. Clay is forgiving, as it is equally unrelenting and _ily_norris adores the challenge of that contradiction.
