Turning Earth Progress Update!

Our new location…

I have been working on this project, as many of you will know, since October 2012, helped on the way by several wonderful volunteers. After many false starts and dashed hopes we have finally found an excellent place for the studio, far better than any we’d yet looked at, and now predict we will be able to open this September.  It will take a while to pin down the details of the lease, and until we have done that I can’t disclose the location, but I will whisper ‘Hoxton’ quietly and hope that is enough to excite you. As you may know, Hoxton and Haggerston stations (which are equidistant from the space) are both on that new and wonderful line that runs regularly to Highbury and Islington, 11 minutes north, and down south to New Cross, only 20 minutes away. It’s really easy to get to from many parts of the city. It’s also a great place to spend time, with lots of artists and craftspeople based in the area, wonderful parks, and some interesting new cafes opening up. The Geffrye Museum (home to the annual Ceramics in the City exhibition), is right round the corner. As well as the great overground links there is a bank of ‘Boris’ bikes outside the studio, which is within spitting distance of the canal. We love it. I can also reveal that the studio has a large, private yard that we will transform into a lush garden, where you can expect to spend many an industrious hour being creative while the sun shines. Enough, I’ve said too much already!

Earth Turner Preview Event – Wednesday 26th June

The third piece of exciting news is that our Earth Turner night, a preview and fundraising event, has been set for Wednesday 26th June in a location very near the new studio. If you would like an invite, please sign up and get on our mailing list. We’d love to meet you!

The event is primarily a ‘meet and greet’ for all our supporters and potential members. There will be 3D renderings of the new space, moodboards showing the feel of the studio, throwing demos and free refreshments. We will announce our location that same evening. It will be a great opportunity to talk to us one-to-one, find out more about membership and/or pottery classes, and to network with other ceramicists and hobbyists. If you are a beginner and feel interested in taking up a new craft, come along and find out more – Turning Earth membership may well be for you.

During the event we will be launching our crowdfund campaign, where we aim to raise an ambitious £10,000 with the aid of advance sign-ups from future members and pledges for collectible pieces from our supporters. We will be offering rewards of Turning Earth merchandise (mugs, t-shirts, aprons etc) for crowdfund pledges from as little as £20. We warmly invite you to become an Earth Turner for Turning Earth.

We are extremely thrilled at the generosity of the many people that have jumped on board to help us with our quest to spread the word about the studio. Five high profile London potters, Norman Yap, Lesley McShea, Ali Tomlin, Tina Vlassopulos and Daniel Smith, have so far donated work to reward those that make pledges to help us. We would like to thank them from the bottom of our hearts for being our very first Earth Turners. It’s an amazing thing to do for a new project, and we are very honoured that they have gone to such a tremendous effort on our behalf.

Please continue the great work and keep spreading the word about the studio to all your friends, coworkers, family members and students, or anyone else you meet that might be interested. The more people that know about the project, the more likely we are to hit our crowdfund target and kickstart the studio.

Thank you all, and see you on the 26th!

Tallie Maughan, Founder

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