We visited Middleport Pottery as part of the Burslem weekend for the British Ceramics Biennial. The area in which Middleport Pottery is located is a bit...grim so when we stepped inside it was a bit like falling down the rabbit hole, which was completely awesome.
We entered a room with three tables with clay monstrosities describing the pits where the fuel for the factories was fug up, the pottery factories which once made the city prosperous and the canal side along which the ceramics were distributed to Manchester, and from there, the rest of the world.
There seemed to be rather a lot of cats there too :)
We helped contribute towards the canal-side, which was a wonderful experience. Everything was made by people walking in, picking up clay and morphing the whole story into existence. It was great to be able to just pick up the soft clay and work directly with the materials without having to sketch anything first.
The results look rather cutesy, like the things I doodle.
BCB 2013
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