At the beginning of May I spent a whole week on a pottery course at Le Mas Sarrat, Lherm, in The Lot. It’s about a 3 hour drive from where I live in the South of France. I set off on the Sunday afternoon and arrived in good time to settle in to my little apartment and then join everyone, both those running the course and those attending as students, for a wonderful barbecue.

We were to have two tutors, Jennie Gilbert and Emily Myers you can read more about them if you click on the links. They are both very talented potters with different styles and I felt honoured that these two experts were happy to share so much knowledge with us.

There were 7 of us on the course and we came from all over the world. A woman from Canada was attending with her best friend from England and another women from Australia was there with her best friend also from England. What a wonderful way to meet up and catch up from across the globe. Not sure how they managed to get their pottery back home though.

The course ran for 4 days — we had Wednesday to ourselves. We could work in the pottery on our own if we wanted to but I chose to go into Cahors and have a look around. Probably should have stayed back as a couple of weeks later I got a speeding ticket from Espère which was a small town I had driven through on my way to Cahors!

CAHORS

I had booked for bed and breakfast and we were given lunch each day as part of the course. The set-up at Le Mas Sarrat is wonderful. It’s a great place for a family holiday. Fiona runs the gites and the B&B and she is Jennie Gilbert’s sister. Fiona has lived in France for a long time and apart from being the most amazing cook speaks French fluently. I believe she also runs French immersion courses. But it is her sister Jennie who is the potter and she comes to Le Mas Sarrat a few times a year. Jennie also teaches in England and you can see that on her website HERE.

Below is just a very small sample of the food that we were served by the lovely Fiona. I am gluten and lactose intolerant and Fiona went out of her way to deliver the most delicious meals for me. We had home made soup each day and there was always the call of, ‘This one is for Ninette!’ How kind she was.

There are quite a few stages to making a pot, bowl or any item in pottery. You can handbuild with coils, slabs or pinching or you can throw on the wheel. The latter is the hardest thing to master, in my opinion of course. First you have to centre the pot on the wheel and if you can’t get on with that then the rest of the process is impossible. I enjoy all aspects of the make. I found I was quite good at ‘pulling’ handles but I’ve not tried again since the course and in my limited experience with clay, I reckon next time I won’t be able to do it at all! After the creation you then have to decorate with underglazes, glazes, oxides…there’s no end to what you can do. It was absolutely amazing how much all of us created in just four days.

Me looking as pleased as punch with my creations. Not perfect but not bad for a beginner!

I cannot recommend Jennie and Emily highly enough. If you’re a beginner at this pottery lark then I suggest you sign up for a two-day or four-day course. You will learn so much and in such good company. I’m going back in October for two days and I cannot wait to get there. In the meantime, I’m putting into practice all that I learnt – at least I’m trying to!

At the end of the week, I wrote a little poem. There’s a lot of water involved in pottery, especially on the wheel.