Karen Donovan

“I completely fell in love with it. Our tutor was so knowledgeable about all the aspects of ceramics. You learn about how kilns work, the different types of glazes and underglazes and what they do, how different types of clay can be used effectively, throwing and hand building techniques, how to join pieces together and make them stable – you think it’s quite simple looking at someone making ceramics, but in reality there are so many different skills involved and we learn to develop them all. We all started off doing similar tasks in class by learning the basics, but you are encouraged in later classes to branch out and make something you’ll really enjoy making for yourself.”   

“For me, being my own boss, the flexible nature of the part-time courses are perfect. There is a day and a time for everybody, be that a morning or later in the day. The other people taking these ceramics courses – some of which have repeated the leisure course multiple times because they enjoy it so much - are very easy to make friends with and seeing them create their own pieces really inspires your own creativity too.” 

“I would absolutely recommend these courses. You arrive to a class and are given some clay and encouraged to make whatever you want with the help and experience of the tutor there to support you. SERC itself is great, I hope nothing ever happens to it – I'll be coming here for courses when I’m in my eighties! You are taught as an adult here – it's a whole different environment to school. I’ve recommended SERC to my daughter as well who also studied the Access to HE courses here. It’s been brilliant.”