Hello, and welcome to the latest edition of Notes from Herridge.

A monthly update from my Oxfordshire pottery studio, where I share what I’ve been making, what’s coming up, and spotlight a fellow maker whose work I think you’ll love.

Grab a coffee and let’s catch up ☕

Studio Happenings

January has been a quiet month; a balm to restore energy and gently reignite excitement for the year ahead. Now that we’re safely past the Christmas chaos, I can say honestly that I look forward to this January quiet each year.

The end of the year often becomes a push, creating stock, fulfilling orders, keeping everything moving. It’s not that I don’t enjoy the festive period (I really do), but the focus inevitably shifts towards capacity rather than creativity. There simply isn’t the space to explore. Once it’s over, I always feel the need for creativity to ooze back in.

And this January, it really has.

One real highlight this month was firing Harriet Coleridge’s soda wood-fired kiln for the first time. You may remember me mentioning last summer that we helped to build it. Our first firing revealed a few adjustments were needed, but this time, it was a phenomenal success. There’s something deeply satisfying about seeing a shared, long-term effort finally come together in the kiln.

If you’d like to see Harriet’s work in person, she’ll be showing at York Ceramics Fair at the Knavesmire Stand, York Racecourse:

Saturday 7th March, 10am–5pm

Sunday 8th March, 10am–4pm

Back in my own studio, I’ve been working on a handful of commissions, including a lovely set of breakfast bowls, made for a customer who had previously bought a mug in the same colourway and asked if I could create a matching set. I love these moments where pieces quietly build on one another.

I’ve also been using this quieter period to explore new materials and ideas, making space for more playful, experimental projects.

A small run of terracotta flower pots are currently drying, destined for the kiln, and I can’t wait to have them in the garden once they’re finished. Alongside this, I’ve been experimenting with porcelain for a personal project: light fittings. When porcelain is thin enough, it allows light to radiate through it, and I’m hoping to develop a series of pendant light shades, some of which may make their way online.

Beyond these more playful projects, I’ve been steadily rebuilding stock after a busy December; a very good problem to have, and a reassuring sign that energy really is returning.

What’s Coming Up

February looks set to continue in a similar, gently exploratory way. I’ll be sharing more of my porcelain experiments as they develop; keep an eye on Instagram for any first sneak peeks.

I’m fulfilling another order with Lavender Green Flowers in Chelsea, this time for the events side of their business, which I’m really excited about. Alongside this, I’m developing a set of vases as samples for them. It made me laugh when they asked if I could make them specifically heavy-bottomed, a rare request, but completely understandable in their world.

I’ll be continuing to help my fellow Arts Week Tree Barn artists by filming social media content for them. I only started this process in the last few days, and with eleven artists to work through it will take a few weeks. It’s been such a brilliant experience; spending time in studios, talking in depth about tools, processes, and approaches, and seeing how wildly different practices all come together to create such strong, varied work. I really love being in studio spaces and talking, so it’s been a joy to have a clear purpose for doing just that.

Maker Spotlight — Annie Monk

This month’s Maker Spotlight is on Annie Monk, a fellow Tree Barn artist, acrylic and mixed media painter, and tutor.

I first met Annie last year as we were both preparing for Oxfordshire Artweeks. I’d been something of a quiet admirer of her work via Instagram for a while, so it was a real treat, and quite frankly a pinch-me moment, to discover we’d be showing alongside one another at the Tree Barn.

I visited Annie recently at her 400 year old home in the Chilterns. Her studio sits upstairs in a compact spare bedroom, looking out across the road and into the beech woods beyond. To reach it, you climb a rather precarious old staircase: odd-sized treads, an inverted camber, and plenty of opportunity to knock your head. Annie reassures me it’s perfectly safe; because it’s so treacherous it forces you to slow right down. I have to laugh at the logic, imagining the daily challenge of hauling canvases and materials up there.

Inside, the studio is a wonderful, creative chaos. Brushes, pastels, paints and canvases fill the space, and in the corner, perched on an easel, sits a piece she’s currently working on.

Annie has been painting for over thirty years. She began in watercolours, and at one point pulls out a landscape from that period. I can hardly believe it’s by the same artist; it feels like the complete antithesis of the abstract, acrylic-led work I know her for today. The shift began during a workshop, where frustration with watercolours led her to experiment with soft pastels. Acrylics followed a couple of years later, and from there her practice continued to evolve. Now, Annie works fully in mixed media, with pieces incorporating collage, acrylic, pastel and ink.

Her work is joyous and uplifting. At first glance, a painting may read as abstract, but as you spend time with it, a landscape begins to emerge, slowly, quietly revealing itself. There’s a generosity to this: you are invited to linger, to look again, to discover.

This sense of openness runs through Annie’s entire process. Beyond a loose sense of subject; a seascape, landscape or still life, she begins with no fixed plan and no preparatory sketches. Each piece evolves directly on the canvas, experimenting and responding to each mark as it’s made. She often starts by laying down a background colour and working quickly, instinctively. As the painting develops, that original colour frequently seeps through, giving clues to its early stages. Over time, she slows down, stepping back to reflect on the piece as a whole before deciding what comes next. Sometimes that means rotating the canvas, painting back into areas, or even changing the subject entirely.

Annie isn’t afraid of completely changing things. In fact, she actively embraces it.

“Sometimes you have to destroy your own work,”

she says, with confidence, reassuring me that she never sees this as a waste of time or materials, because she’s always learning. It’s an approach she also encourages in her students when she’s tutoring: letting go of preciousness, trusting the process, and understanding that every mark, even the ones that fade, add value.

As she talks, she pulls out a seascape she’d previously thought finished. Looking at it now, she feels it’s too traditional, too literal, and decides it might be time to “give it a good kicking.” There’s no drama in the decision, just curiosity.

At one point, Annie shares a quote she returns to often, attributed to Philip Guston:

“When you start working, everybody is in your studio — the past, your friends, your enemies, the art world, and above all your own ideas are all there. But as you continue painting, they leave one by one, and you are left completely alone. Then, if you are lucky, even you leave.”

It perfectly captures why she continues to make work after three decades. For Annie, painting is about reaching that meditative state, where time softens, and energy builds through the act of making itself. You can feel that in her paintings: the freedom, the layers, the quiet confidence.

I find this deeply inspiring. It makes me think about moments in my own practice when I haven’t been brave enough to ‘destroy’ something; and have ended up with pieces that are fine, but not pieces I truly love. Spending time with Annie is a reminder that the real joy often lies not in the finished object, but in staying open to what a piece might still become.

If you’d like to see Annie’s work in person, she’ll be showing alongside me at the Tree Barn, Christmas Common, from 2–10 May, and is also a member of the Henley Arts and Crafts Guild and the Watlington Arts Hub, exhibiting with them throughout the year. 

The best way to keep up with Annies work, exhibitions and upcoming workshops is via Instagram: @anniemonk23.

If there’s a maker, potter or otherwise, local or further afield, whose work you think deserves the spotlight, I’d love to hear from you. Just comment below with their name. And if I can get to their studio, I absolutely will! Stepping into someone’s creative space brings a whole new layer of insight. You see the context, the process, and what the work gives back to the maker, it’s always deeply rewarding.

A Little Treat for You 

As a thank you for reading all the way down, here’s a small treat: 

Use code NOTES08 for 10% off all handmade pottery online orders until Sunday 8th February.

If you’ve enjoyed this edition, feel free to forward it to a friend who loves handmade ceramics.

Until next time, Henrietta x