Rachel Downey
Rachel (Rae) Downey is an independent potter who approached the PMI for help to boost her skills to help her small business. The PMI supported Rachel to join a skills course at Loveclay.
“Since joining the throwing course at LoveClay which is taught by Jon, I have gone from a complete beginner who had never thrown anything before to being inspired by a love of pottery to start up my own small ceramics business. On my most recent 5-week course I have expanded my skills further and pushed myself to attempt teapots, something that I had tried on my own before but to no success and something that was a little daunting to me.
Jon was very supportive throughout the process and went through every aspect of it from start to finish. After a demo of how to make each section, he let me have a go on my own, allowing me to practice but he was always available to help just in case any assistance was needed. After I threw the base of the teapot, he showed me how to throw the lid and the spout to the teapot and he also showed several different methods of doing this to achieve varying visual results and styles. Once all of the pieces were leather hard, Jon went through the process of trimming the pieces so that they all refined and fit together to be able to work as one piece. After this, we attached all of the pieces, and Jon was very informative, explaining techniques to help produce a teapot that pours nicely.