Blog

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This year we are holding two Winter Markets - one in our Leyton centre, and the other in our original Hoxton arches.

TURNING EARTH LEYTON 30 Nov/1 Dec 12-6pm

Head over to our first market in the Turning Earth Leyton studios for ceramics from 75 makers, wheel-throwing and handbuilding demos, delicious Vietnamese Street food from Hanoi Ca Phe, glögg (Scandi-inspired mulled wine) and mince pies, and live music from Balkan klezma group Tantz. A charity stall selling donated work will raise money for charity Help Refugees.

ARGALL AVE OPEN STUDIOS

During the Turning Earth Leyton market weekend you can also browse around local businesses for the third annual Argall Ave Open Studios. Sample delicious ales from Neckstamper Brewery, get some of the city's finest pastries from Pavilion Bakery, and grab some lunch at neighbouring Lighthaus Cafe. Discover furniture from creative reclaimers ThinkFOUND and luxury designer A. White Workshop, as well as  bespoke joinery from RHMB, fine woodwork from Piers Peel, and fine art framing from Dylan Shipton Frames.

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TURNING EARTH HOXTON + CARVE LONDON 14/15 DEC 12-6pm

The Turning Earth Hoxton market returns on 14/15 December, with 75 different makers, this time based out of our Hoxton studios. We'll have more street food, coffee from Climpsons and live gypsy jazz from George Risk. You can watch demos in wheel throwing and other pottery techniques throughout the day with the option to have a go yourself. Buy specially donated pieces to help raise money for Hackney Migrant Centre.

The market continues at Big Sky studios next door, where an arch is being taken over by wood ware curators carve.london to showcase handmade functional wood work from some of the UK's most inspiring contemporary maker.

ABOUT CARVE.LONDON

Now in it's second year, carve.london is curated by highly regarded greenwood makers, Hackney Road’s Barn the Spoon, and Grain and Knot, one of the UK’s leading wood ware Instagram channels. 12 of the UK's best loved woodworkers will be selling small giftable items, including foraged timber homeware and beautiful basketry. London's

Greenwood Guild will demonstrate with lathes, and they'll even bring along a forge so you can get your knives sharpened in time for Christmas.

Sophie from carve.london says "This year we are so pleased to be hosting @cave.london alongside the Turning Earth Winter Market. As always, our plan is to celebrate the handmade and shine a spotlight on makers in wood. We will have some returning faces such as chairmaker Sam Cooper - whose carvings show such fine attention to detail. We will also be welcoming lots of new faces, including Geoffrey Fisher with his foraged timber homewares and Lee John Phillips, who's work came to our attention after he drew every item in his late grandads shed - he has now translated his graphic style into spoon carving. Ellie Morgan of @woodwoolwillow will have her beautiful handwoven baskets for sale alongside the work of Forge Creative, Havelock Studio, The Green Wood Guild - and of course expect the usual carvings from Barn the spoon, and Grain and Knot."

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Twenty-one days to find out if we have poisoned our members. We wait charily as the results we’re expecting could potentially bring this place to its knees; if the independent Air quality test of our pilot studio in Hoxton turns out toxic, then we’ve failed five years of endeavour and hard work.

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When we first started out we just didn’t know what was what, or even how to find out. Clay dust: Bad, that’s about all we had. Opening a studio, we knew it had to be kept clean, but how clean and how would you know if you were getting it right?

It’s a costly and voluntary procedure but we knew it had to be done. We called a company called Euro-Environmental in May this year, who came and positioned mini air-sample devices that looked like spy-gadgets onto our team’s aprons, onto our members’ clothes and in potential hotspots all over the studio. Then they came back eight hours later and took them for analysis.

Lungs, they are extraordinarily valuable bits of kit, and somewhat fragile.  As an ex-respiratory nurse in a ceramics studio these vital organs at once became a constant cause of arresting consideration for me. Having seen the very real and sobering, untreatable effects of lung cancer, emphysema and other devastating chest conditions, managing and maintaining a healthy studio safe enough for some 300 members of the public a week has felt like a dust-crusted Sword of Damocles.

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Silica, its whole inevitable existence can potentially take all the fun out of clay; and all the oxygen from your airways, forever. It is a pernicious substance, even in small doses, once it enters the lungs it dwells there and stubbornly denies your lymph system any recourse to dispatch it; gradually taking over and slowly suffocating you. The studio, it turned out, rather disturbingly, is full of robust sources of this substance. Kilns for example, merrily pump out the stuff all night long (as well as thousands of other toxins). Therefore for the sake of the public and our team, we realised all systems needed to be carefully designed and constantly updated to minimise the breathable levels of silica dust in the air.

So we got venting and mopping, staff, mentors and members all, we sent out grave reminders in our newsletter to the whole of the membership: Clean up after yourselves, for the love of breathable air! Every nook seemed to be a source of clay crumbs and dust. In fact, anywhere anybody did anything would immediately generate a mountain of dust.

I get some good news: I find out that something called a P3 respirator can protect you from  breathing in Silica. They’re not cheap but I buy a load plus spares for all the staff and make them wear them when cleaning, and then I decided while loading kilns, and then when consolidating shelves. Not to mention mixing glazes. I just didn’t know. Should we insist the whole membership wear them?

Our mantra is now: It’s not the person; it’s the system. Although, people operate the system of course. So, as well as attempting to instill a sense of ownership and responsibility into the mindset of the membership via the newsletter and handbook, (terrifying them with tales of the effects of silicosis and issuing constant reminders of the necessity for good cleaning practices; also segueing clauses for cleaning times into their contracts) we have had to slowly build in operational systems into our rota to prevent unknowable chaos getting the better of us. Each change to the procedure has slightly upgraded the last.

This is by no means a simple undertaking and it is credit to our unflappable staff who carry out the heavy work to protect us all every day. The processes are always subject to upgrade - in fact ‘All systems can be improved’ is another of our favourite maxims - because you have to make them work as efficiently as possible.  Minimal input for maximum output with zero waste: That’s the dream.

But has it actually meant anything at all? Has it made a difference after all this shifting and mopping and wet-vacuuming and rotas, respirators, sweat and haranguing people ? Or has it been moving furniture on the Titanic?

The results come in via email and I scroll through all the preamble. Hands shaking.

Respirable Crystaline Silica: 0.028mgs/m3  In all areas, <35% WEL

What does that mean?

Status Workplace Exposure Limit: Insignificant!

Insignificant! in all areas of testing.

I want to hug the team.

Lewis Maughan

Turning Earth Operational Manager

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