We are located in the heart of England and are home to the British potter Sarah 'shiro' Parr, (that's me,) and my team of helper minions.
I have had a life long love of sculpting starting with Play Doh and graduating to Plastercine, air-drying clay and anything else I could sculpt with.
I studied a GNVQ in art and design at college and that was my first brush with ceramics. Sadly the cost of continuing after college as prohibitive.
Later I became involved with a NHS project to help people with mental health problems called Rework. Rework was a wonderful place, it had a wood working shop, craft sessions and a ceramics department where client were guided to make everything from bee boxes to broaches, that were then sold to the public.
I started out as a client and with the wonderful help of the staff there not only recovered my health but also rediscovered my love for ceramics.
When my brilliant mentor Joy Saunders retired I was lucky enough to be invited to become the Craft and Ceramics Volunteer Technician at the workshop.
I loved being able to continue working with ceramics and also learning to help other people suffering from mental health problems.
In 2013 I was nominated for, and won an NHS Q Award in the volunteers category.
Sadly later in 2013 due to NHS budget cuts, Rework was closed down.
It is a great loss.
Despite this my love of ceramics was now too great to just be put away again and I decided to continue my ceramics practice.
I discovered the wonder studio, "The Grid" and set up there.
The next challenge was acquiring a kiln. That has been quite an adventure, but at last my kiln (nicknamed Sputnik when she's good and The Beast when I'm mad at her) is up and running.
Sputnik arrives at the studio late one night.
And that's the story so far. I hope you'll stick around and see
what happens next. :)
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