Local ceramicist imparts his knowledge on RHS pupils

Charlie Falconer, a local ceramicist who studied at Loughborough University and the Royal College of Art, spent the day in the Ceramics studio of the RHS Art department making three sculptural vessels in clay using varying techniques in hand building.

At the beginning of lesson one he prepared coils, rolled square slabs of clay, and prepared bases and plaster moulds for building. Year 11 pupils were present to see his three projects in this first stage of building and were able to ask lots of pertinent questions about their own developing GCSE work. As the day progressed, Year 9 and Sixth Form art lessons took place as his projects grew from the ground up with exciting developments along the way.

Over lunch, a select group of art scholars and gifted art pupils participated in a Master Class workshop in which they were able to hear about Charlie's experience studying ceramics at university and find out more about his creative process and technique. They then got stuck in experimenting with new ways of hand building in clay as Charlie completed his three works.

It was refreshing and inspiring to see the work develop in front of our eyes and the RHS artists made the most of having him in our midst for the day, asking thoughtful questions and sharing their own work with him. Many thanks to Charlie for spending the day with us and providing a bit of inspiration for our artists.