Creative with Clay - Coiling & Botanical Vases Workshop at the Haddenham Arts Centre - April 2026

I had a lovely creative group of students attend today's clay coiling & botanical vases workshop!

After their welcome tea & biscuits, everyone joined Simon and I in the studio where we spent the morning enjoying the freedom and playfulness of creating pots & mini sculptures using the coiling method. Everyone was thoroughly absorbed in the process and it was great to hear how much they enjoyed the mindfulness of the session.

I always use a camera and large screen to help demonstrate some of the more delicate or trickier elements of any technique, so everyone can see up close how to achieve their desired design.

After lunch, the students discovered the art of slab building; creating two large large slab vases - the first with a completely botanical theme. Everyone enjoyed pressing in leaves, flowers and seed heads. I introduced some stamps and patterned rollers for the second vase, and some members of the group opted for a fabulous mixed media approach; incorporating botanicals with stamps and pattern.

It was lovely to see all the different designs emerge and everyone should be very proud of their achievements.

Despite the lovely - not - Fen roads, we've managed to get all the work back to the Blended Monkey ceramics studio unscathed. All the pieces will now be left to dry slowly before they are bisque fired, provided with glaze colours already chosen by each student, and then high fired.

The students can then opt to collect from the Haddenham Arts Centre or from our Blended Monkey studios.

I'll post photos of the glazed and fired creations when they emerge from the kiln!

If you missed out on my Creative with Clay Coiling & Botanical Vases experience, I'm holding the following botanical vases experiences this year (with many more to follow in 2027):

• Friday 10 July - 5.45 pm - 8.00 pm Large Botanical Vase Workshop - Blended Monkey Studios - £50.00 - INFO & BOOK HERE

• Saturday 3 October - 10.00 am - 4.00 pm Coiling & Botanical Slab Vases Workshop - Haddenham Arts Centre - £95.00 - INFO & BOOK HERE

• Sunday 11 October - 10.00 am - 12.00 pm or 1.30 pm - 3.30 pm Large Botanical Vase Workshop - Farmland Museum - £50.00 - INFO & BOOK HERE

For more info about all our other fabulous guest tutor group workshops, visit our WEBSITE

Our experiences make ideal CRAFTY GIFTs & we can post or email you a complimentary personalised voucher if you'd like to make any of our experiences a present for somebody.

Botanicals ready to be pressed into clay - Blended Monkey creative with clay workshop

Coiled vessels made during the Blended Monkey Creative With Clay workshop

Student creating a vessel using the coiling method - Blended Monkey

Students enjoying their creative with clay workshop - Blended Monkey

Student creating a vessel using the coiling method - Blended Monkey

Students enjoying creating botanical vases using the slab method - Blended Monkey

Students enjoying creating botanical vases using the slab method - Blended Monkey

Students enjoying creating botanical vases using the slab method - Blended Monkey

Students enjoying creating botanical vases using the slab method - Blended Monkey

Students enjoying creating botanical vases using the slab method - Blended Monkey

Students enjoying creating botanical vases using the slab method - Blended Monkey

Some of the coiled creations made today

Coiled vessels created during today's creative with clay experience

Some of the botanical vases created today

Group Creative with Clay Experience

---

https://video.wixstatic.com/video/d73c11_ab7587db6c014d17b6b7402d1bc727ea/1080p/mp4/file.mp4

Coiling quirky vessels!

REVIEWS

"I definitely hope to get booked onto another of your Blended Monkey courses. It was a thoroughly enjoyable day and such a really informative and well thought out introduction to coil and slab vases."

- Jane -

#blendedmonkey #blendedmonkeyworkshops #blendedmonkeyexperiences #createwithclay #clayworkshops #blendedmonkeyclayworkshops #ceramicsworkshops #botanicalvases #botanicalslabvases #botanicalvaseswithblendedmonkey #clayworkshopsnorfolk #clayworkshopscambridgeshire