Alison WestCeramics

Alison West runs her ceramics studio from the Stableyard in Chagford, on the edge of Dartmoor, teaching pottery to no more than two students at a time. Weekly classes cover coiling, slab-building, press moulding and wheel throwing, with students setting their own pace across a block of four or five paid-in-advance lessons that include materials and firing. Taster sessions run two and a half hours for individuals or pairs, ending with a name-stamped pot glazed and delivered within eight weeks. West also teaches saggar, raku and barrel firing as specialist alternative-firing workshops, techniques that produce unpredictable surface patterns rather than the even glazes of an electric kiln. The studio keeps a small reference library on ceramics for students to consult between sessions, and private one-to-one lessons are available by arrangement.