Once Upon a Time in the Studio

This weekend I was reminiscing about the studio beginnings, five years down the line. As many of you know we are full to the rafters and booked up for months. I never cease to be grateful for this … I am still pinching myself about the massive success of The Ceramics Studio. It s a myth that it was the Throw Down that made us, it was actually Warwickshire Open Studios audience that secured our future. Of course I am grateful for a the flux the TV show brought but you cant beat that wonderful Warwickshire audience, they are a discerning bunch of art connoisseurs.

When we set up the studio it was a scary time, I spent all my cash I came from Bermondsey with on the set up and it felt like an age before it took off, I was very close to ruin! We started with a Tuesday evening & Thursday morning session, for 6 weeks I only had 3 students. Cash got tight and I really started to think leaving London was a mistake… success was so instant there and it took some real footwork to build awareness that were even here, tucked away in countryside.

I will be forever grateful to Bruno for bringing his friends from his gallery days and for The Osbornes – of EFX fame-next door for their support, especially the lovely Melanie and her sensational networking abilities. By Christmas 2014, we had a lovely art show, two small classes and my darling Rhian Malin as resident. The best decision we made was to put on a show with Evgenia Golubeva for Open Studios. We doubled our sessions at this point and things were secure. By Christmas 2015 the TV show was on and I had to get help to run the space. I was lucky to get the stellar calm of Holly Summers and Katherine Barker who straightened out my admin chaos and we made the most of the Christmas flux, selling gift vouchers and sessions well in to 2016. Katherine helped me put on a wonderful show the following June and things really solidified. It has been such a learning curve, I ve really had to up my game in business knowledge. I ll post about that another time. Anyway, fond memories of a challenging time and I proud to be sitting here enjoying life and typing to you : )

PS. Who remembers the day with Chloe and the sausage?