Tarka Pottery

About Tarka Pottery

Let us introduce ourselves! We have an enthusiastic, friendly and experienced team, led by Jax Williams - a potter with over 30 years of experience. Our exciting, interactive ceramics studio in North Devon is surrounded by beautiful rural countryside. All customers can throw a pot on the wheel or learn hand building techniques, and at the end of their unique experience, we glaze and fire the creation to take home as a handmade keepsake. Over 10 years, we have developed Tarka Pottery into an exciting and inspiring clay experience studio where everyone is welcome. No matter what age or ability we love to introduce people to the fantastic medium of clay and show the marvelous projects that can be made.

How we recycle clay

We recycle all the clay that we can here at Tarka Pottery. It’s super important that different types of clay (e.g. Earthenware or Stoneware) are kept separate so that they can be properly recycled, as different types of clay fire (in the kiln) at different temperatures. This is then clearly stored in separate bags.

If the clay is wet when finished with (e.g. leftover slip from the potter’s wheel) then we lay it out on plaster bats (this can also be done at home on thick pieces of cardboard) to draw out the moisture (see below image). If it’s sunny, we’ll leave it outside to dry more quickly in the heat.

If the clay is dry (e.g. leftover coils that have dried out too much to use), we wait until the clay goes completely bone dry, then break it into small pieces using a hammer (as seen in the below video). From here, we completely submerge it in water to turn it into slip. As this happens, we let all the mud settle then remove clear water from the top. Then, dry out the clay on plaster bats as with wet clay.

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We then put the clay through our Pugmill (the machine in the image below). It is electric (but run off our solar panels!) as we recycle lots of clay here everyday, but if recycling small quantities, you could just knead the clay by hand.

Commitment Updates

20th July 2021

Tarka Pottery have signed the Biosphere's Nature Recovery Declaration! Thank you for your support. A great way to achieve a conservation commitment.

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