It’s finally here! Welcome to the second season of Clay Commons! I’ve gone for something a bit different with this one so let me explain a bit.
I maaaaay have mentioned the incredible few months in Summer 2022 that I spent travelling up and down the East Coast of North America, visiting craft schools and ceramic studios. Why? Because the idea for the Clay Commons came out of the rising number of community clay studios in the UK, and, if you listen to Ep2, Season 1, you’ll hear about how American models have massively influenced this. So, I wanted to go to source and see what these organisations might look like 10, 20, 100 yrs on. What ended up was so much more than a history lesson, positioning this work within much wider contexts of ethical feminist business models, indigenous land back movements and socialism.
As usual, I couldn’t fit all that I learnt and experienced into this podcast, so went for more of a soundscape, picking up on overarching themes. There was something so special about being physically in these places, so I’ve tried to embody some of that sense of being in place and context throughout this season. Please do try and forgive some of the sound quality - turns out wandering around with a hand held microphone on windy coastlines and in noisy studios isn't the best way to record a conversation!
Hope there’s some useful ideas and provoking thoughts in there! Enjoy!