Explore your creative side and recover from the post yuletide slump
(04/11/2009)

Frustrated artists, budding potters or anyone who needs to get away from it all and explore their creative sides will find their post Christmas spirits lifted, and have something to look forward to in those cold winter months.

This has to be the perfect Christmas gift: A weekend by the sea at Vinegar Hill B&B and pottery in Hampshire, exploring your creative side and recovering from the post yuletide slump!

Places are available for a day’s course, but why not take the opportunity to make a weekend of it and stay in Dave and Lucy Rogers B&B accommodation at Milford-on-Sea on the beautiful Hampshire coast.

Lucy said: “You can either choose your preferred dates, book the place and we will send you a voucher to give, or we can provide you with a voucher and you choose the date at a later stage. There are only six places per course meaning Dave has time to tutor each individual. It doesn't matter how much potting experience you have - total beginner or happy hobby potter by the end of the day you will have made all sorts of pots, and we hope you will have got the hang of throwing a pot on the wheel."

“Tuition begins at 9 (after a hearty breakfast for residential potters) and we tend to work through until 1 pm when we stop for a delicious homemade lunch of seasonal soup, pies or suchlike, served with homemade bread, cheeses and fruit.”

All meals are cooked by Lucy, a keen cook, and served in the atmospheric converted hayloft above the studio. Potters are back in the studio from 2pm until 4pm, when tuition ends, although you can work on if you wish. You can take the pots you have made home with you, or Dave can fire and glaze them for you at an extra cost.

Prices are £75 for the day including homemade cake, tea coffee or hot chocolate at elevenses, a hearty lunch, and an optional vin chaud to help you on your way before you go home.

Vinegar Hill only has two B&B rooms, and these will be allocated on a first come first serve basis. However Lucy and Dave can recommend other B&B accommodation in the village once their rooms are full.