It has been a busy start to the year at The Ceramics Studio. The year started with the boss lady, Leyla, 5,000 miles away, on the other side of the world in Colombia. Lindsey was also away in the USA. This left the super team, Holly, Gaye, Rhian and me (Louisa), to hold the fort for the start of the term. It was a little nerve racking for me but I loved looking after the Tuesday and Thursday classes and it was a brilliant opportunity to get to know our lovely regulars better and for them to get to know me. Holly, Gaye and Rhian were also superstars running the studio and helping me with the classes.Anyway, the Studio survived but it was great having Leyla back and she was really missed by the staff and students! A lot has happened since Leyla got back from her travels. I can’t believe we are nearly at the end of February already! Only five weeks of our regular classes left too. Many of our classes are booked up and all our beginners’ classes are fully booked until July. We have just released dates for a porcelain hand building workshop with Rhian Malin, coiling ceramics, slab pots and a pottery decorating focus day. These are filling up really quickly, which is great!We launched The Ceramics Studio Photo Competition on social media in December. We asked for photos of our bags in interesting locations and had loads of great entries. Leyla was feeling particularly generous on her return from Colombia and decided to give 3 runner up prizes of £10 Ceramics Studio vouchers as well as the main prize of a £50 voucher. Below is the winning photo taken by Rachel Young in the Picasso Museum in Barcelona. All the staff picked our favourite photos from all our entries and then drew the winner and runners up out of a hat, to make it fair.Our runners up all winning a £10 voucher were Laura Francioso-Hehir – Snowman photo, Sue Skelding – Beach bag with family and Helen Murphy – Gorilla StatueKeep an eye out on our website and social media pages for more competitions.We have been keeping busy with our intermediate and beginner classes and also our workshops. Already this year we have had a press moulding workshop, a pottery geeks and hand building porcelain with Rhian Malin workshop.We were very lucky to be joined by the super talented Jane Adams who makes wonderful animal sculptures from her gallery in St Just in far West Cornwall. It was a very successful day with Jane’s help and expertise. We had to dry out the animals REALLY slowly as they were solid and we did not want them to crack. The animals were unloaded from the kiln last week and I think you will agree that they look great! Jane Adams will be back later in the year for another workshop so keep an eye on our website and newsletters for details.Our ‘Free Love Social’ on Valentine’s Day was a lovely evening and it was great to just hang out and eat nibbles. Looking forward to our next social – ‘Colombia Night’, Wed 21st March at 4pm where we will have more drinks and nibbles and hear about all Leyla’s adventures in Colombia.

Boss Lady MIA