For years now, we have been trying to get a project over the line. It has often seemed like it was never going to happen, but now we are finally on the cusp of making it reality. When we moved to our house, we were not looking for lots of land. Our brief was simple – a smaller house, with room for a pottery studio in which we could work and run workshops, and a small vegetable patch to grow as much food as we could. The aim was for a simple lifestyle, as environmentally sustainable and low impact as possible. Things did not quite work out in the way we planned… Firstly, we ended up buying a house that came with a large area of overgrown woodland. When we moved, it was impossible to explore most of it, choked as it was by invasive rhodedendron and buddleia. I felt the responsibiity to care for this land keenly – to take out the invasive species and let the old oak trees breathe. I have since spent a long time and lots of hard work trying to do just that – and slowly it has started to transform the woodland back to what it always should have been- a pocket of beautiful oak rainforest, perched above the Clyde estuary…

The other thing that did not go to plan was that we had an unfortunate brush with officialdom. When we moved to our new house, we asked a series of questions of Argyll and Bute planning department about what permissions we needed to obtain to work from home and run pottery workshops for members of the public. We were told (by e-mail) that we required none. Accordingly, we built workshops and pretty soon a third of our income was made up of people paying for pottery workshops. Unfortunately, following a complaint from a neighbour about us running a business from home, the planning department conducted an investigation, and decided that although our activities were not in breach of planning, the building we had erected as our workshop was not deemed to pass building regulations for recieving members of the public. We appealed, on the basis that we had previously been informed by e-mail that building regulations were not required, but to no avail. Conspiracy theorists might well enjoy the fact that our beloved council deleted all documents and e-mails relating to our enquiries, meaning that the ombudsman was not able to rule in our favour. Such is life. We adapted and moved on…

My mum died. Here she is, sitting in a garden, her favourite place in the world. She never got to see our new garden, here in the Clyde, being too ill to travel north. When it came to a share of the small amount of inheritance from the sale of her house that was coming to us, I wanted to make something that might form a lasting memorial. Could we use it to build a new workshop? Something that enhanced the woodland, built from sustainable materials and using low impact construction methods? Even better, could we make a space in the woodland that might become a haven for people – for artists and makers to spent time creating and recharging their passion? Fortunately, we have a friend who runs a company who have the skills to make something like this happen. Without Stuart and his company Fynewood, we would have given up long ago as we have tried to navigate the labyrinth of planning. Along with Ronan (who handles design and planning) we came up with something…

We now have planning consent to put up two small buildings – one a micro-lodge with shower and amenities, the other a workshop with disabled access loo. We intend to make the whole site fully accessible to people in wheelchairs by putting in a graded pathway and decking. We will then use the premises in a number of different ways;

• A place for people to make artist retreats. People will be able to book both the accommodation and the workshop for either four, seven or eleven nights.
• We intend to make some slots available at low/no cost to artists who would otherwise not be able to participate.
• Our own workshops. Pottery, retreat days, poetry and writing days.
• Guest workshops. Working with our network of artists and creatives, to host a wide range of arts, crafts and writing.
• Bookings by other artists to run their own events.

As you can imagine, the costs of making this happen is a real challenge – particularly as these costs have been rising constantly, making everything much more expensive than when we started this process. Conditions imposed by the planning department have raised these costs further – we are still negotiating some of these conditions. Despite this, we are pressing forward, determined and very grateful for the support of Fynewood. But now we need your help. Firstly, there is this survey. If you are an artist, and you have ever taken, or would like to take, an artists retreat, then we would love to hear from you. If you have undertaken workshops, would like to start or attend more, we would love to hear from you. If you have run workshops yourself, we would love to hear from you.  

 

Crowdfunding

The next way you might be able to help is to support this project more directly – specifically with the accessibility side of the project. Feel no pressure, but if this project connects with things that you find important and you have some spare cash to put towards it, then we would be most grateful. Back in 2020, we were amazed when our crowdfunded ‘shop shed’ was so well supported. We decided to reach out once more to our wonderful supporters. We have set up a new crowd funding portal, with a set of rewards as before – both physical things, but also the opportunity to book in advance as a way of investing in the future. You can take a look here. Creative Scotland have a system of match funding crowdfunded donations (up to a combined total of £10K) so your contributions might count for double! Help us make this plan a reality. Help us create a space for hospitality and creativity, Let us bring good things out of this good ground, together.

 

We love doing crafts fairs, makers markets and ceramics fairs. There are some that haven’t felt right, not enough support for makers or just a feeling of unpleasant competitiveness between makers – but when they work, it’s wonderful . The feelings and attitudes usually come from the top, we have realised. When the tone is set right, it’s such a wonderful and cooperative experience – cooperation between organiser and maker, between organiser and the public and between the maker and the public.

Here is our recent stall at Bute Yard – one of the good events – lovely communication, greeted at the door, lovely helpers and a check in as to how things are going and any feedback. The promotion must work well too, with 1200 people coming through the door on a small island!

The main reason we love doing it (obviously the reason to be there is to earn some money to pay our bills, but what makes it enjoyable…) is meeting you, the public. We may have met before or our work may be new to you or maybe you have seen it in a shop or gallery but haven’t met us before. Either way, it’s so lovely to make a connection. The words mean something to people and we hear lovely stories. We get to see what draws people’s attention even  if it isn’t a sale. We get to meet other makers too and share stories of this beautiful but crazy life as artists!

For those of you interested in the interface between spirituality, art and social justice, perhaps this might be worth hearing about. Chris has been involved in a project to revive an old publishing organisation called Proost. It will become a community interest company soon, but at present, the work is more to build community. As part of this, Proost is pulling together an exciting meet up in Glasgow. If you want to know more, sign up on the proost site on the link below, or get in in touch with us and we can full you in. Here is a quick update on the Proost meet up for artists in Glasgow. First, the key details;

PROOST MEET UP, 2025 Date: 3rd October 2025 (6:00 PM) to 5th October 2025 (4:00 PM) Location: St Oswald’s Episcopal Church, King’s Park, 260 Castlemilk Rd, Glasgow G44 4LB Hosted by: Proost, in partnership with local Episcopal and Church of Scotland Churches Cost: The gathering is free, with the aim of making this gathering as accessible as possible for all. Accommodation: Informal hosting options are available for those who need them, and we’re happy to provide guidance on nearby accommodation options to help you make your stay as comfortable as possible. Let us know how we can assist you!

 

  WHAT IS IT ALL ABOUT? Many of you will remember Proost as it used to be- a publishing platform established on the edge of what we used to call ’emerging church’ or ‘missional groups’ or ‘alt worship’. It gathered a community of creatives who made poetry, art, video, music, liturgy and much more. For many of us, it gave a sense of belonging and connection – and ways to collaborate with other artists in both gathered and dispersed events. We live in different times now, but if anything, creatives need these connections more than ever. We need art that engages, that challenges, that allows us to go deeper. We need to hear from people who are otherwise marginalised. We need to speak of justice and peace, so challenge where appropriate. We need to take allow our art to connect with the deep spirituality of the earth. The landscape of faith and culture has changed a lot in the decades since Proost first came on to the scene. Communication technology has made publishing easier, yet at the same time so much harder because of the sheer volume of content being produced. Funding streams and generating income is a massive challenge. Against all this, we have a powerful tool called community. This is our dream for a new Proost- the means by which we combine our voices, our creativity and our resources to transcend the limitiations imposed by our context in service of justice. We think this is a holy pursuit, made ever more urgent by the crises gathering around us- wars, climate breakdown, inequality and political/economic impotence. Much of this discussion has been taking place via two podcasts… The main feed The poetry feed … and we have made a start with some collaborations around Advent and Lent. But we feel that community also needs to make physical connections. We need to come together in one place, to share stories, to make plans and art together.   WHAT WILL WE DO? The idea is simple- choose a theme and then invite people to respond to it using their art – music, poetry, painting, dance, pottery, photography, animation, video – or anything else. We will make space for as many contributions and expressions of creativity as we can comb together in the form of installation or performance. The only limitation is that you need to bring those contributions in person! We are so grateful to St Oswald’s Episcopal Church (King’s Park, 260 Castlemilk Rd, Glasgow G44 4LB) in partnership with local Episcopal and Church of Scotland Churches for generously hosting this weekend. Installation space will be in and around the St Oswalds. (This will include a large mushroom-related ceramic offering!) Performance opportunities will be via 1. A great big Ceilidh on Saturday night – dancing, hopefully interspersed with all sorts of other poems, songs and stories. 2. Sunday afternoon event. Both will be open to local people. We want to keep Saturday day-time for discussion and chat amongst Proostians – working out together what seems important, and how this project might progress. There will be themed discussions led by different members of the team.

WHY MYCELLIUM? This is the theme we have chosen for our meet up. Some of the reasons for this will already be in your heads, but here are some ponderings that might help unleash your own creative responses. Soil science is advancing rapidly – we now need to stop thinking of soil as just inert dirt. It might be more accurate to regard it as a living entity all on its own – but if that is a little fanciful surely we need to understand that it is a complex ecosystem- one which almost all other land based life on the planet depends upon. Without soil, we die. Crucially, the role of mycelial networks in connecting, communicating and making communalities is increasingly being understood to be so much more important than previously thought. Mycelium is the way that trees ‘talk’ to one another. Think about that- one life form relies upon another lifeform in order to share nutrients, warn of disease and so much more. We modern humans tend to think about the natural world as being characterised by competition, the elimination of weakness and ‘survival of the fittest’. We have taken Darwinian ideas, misunderstood them and used them to justify our economics, our politics – even our spiritualities. The more we understand about mycelium, the more we need to think again. Perhaps the ‘survival of the fittest’ might better be understood to mean that we survive best when we seek to fit with our context – when we seek connection and community. What are we connecting with? Does mycelium only represent a way to understand human interrelatedness – with both each other and with the wider natural world? I would argue however that we might consider this connection to be much deeper than that. These ideas have always been at the heart of the Christian story, not least the mystical traditions and the Celtic wisdom traditions, both of which have long emphasised that it is through God that all things live and have their being. In the Celtic understanding, God is to be found at the centre of everything, even us. We encounter him by going deeper. Richard Rohr, in his magnificent book ‘The Universal Christ’ show us a different window into this way of understanding, in which the Christ is ‘another name for everything’ – the cosmic consciousness through which the universe expanded and came into being. We are all held in this commonality and invited to participate according to the deep truth of love. As followers of Jesus, there seem to me to be so many other resonances here.

• Unity and Oneness:

Jesus called for a unified community, where individuals, despite their differences, are “perfectly joined together” in their minds and judgments.

• Body Analogy:

He used the image of a body with many parts, each playing a vital role, to illustrate the interconnectedness and interdependence of his followers.

• Love for Neighbour:

Jesus emphasized the importance of loving one’s neighbour as oneself, which encourages cooperation and mutual support within a community. Compassion and love are a natural law that we need to be drawn towards.

• Serving Others:

He demonstrated the importance of serving others, highlighting the value of helping those in need and working together for a common good.

• Collaboration and Partnership:

Jesus encouraged his followers to work together, emphasizing the importance of partnership in living as agents of the Kingdom of God.

  HOW TO GET INVOLVED? We need ideas, songs, poems, film, images, dance, liturgies. We will ‘curate’ these in advance and include as many as we can. HOWEVER- this is about community, so we need you to bring your ideas, not just to send them. We will make the event together. We have some very limited funding, and the offer of some accommodation. We don’t want money to be an obstacle for anyone.   This is the start of a new thing. Come and help shape it. On saturday we want to explore ideas together- to talk of Poesis and dream of how art and spirituality move togther and miight lead us forward. If this is interesting to you, what you can do is SIGN UP VIA THE PROOST WEBSITE This will not commit you to anything- we will keep you informed, that is all. If you have ideas you want to talk through,or want to know more, or have questions, we would love to hear from you- you can get in touch via the website, or drop me a message via the comments below, or send me an e-mail at thisfragiletent@com

Fun in the rain, waiting for the most delicious Spanish food, with all the other potters taking part in Potfest Scotland 2025. You can see Scone Palace in the background, and all the trestle tables spread out, for hosting us all. The Potfest team is amazing and looks after us all very well. After day one of the event, we have a mug swap, which we’ve mentioned before in this blog, then prize giving, and then the potters’ meal.

Each year, we get to sit with folks we know and also meet new folks. It’s an absolute joy!

There’s so much more to the ceramic fairs than selling pottery, although of course, that helps us pay the bills. There’s a connection with the public – people we have met who have bought from us before, people who have questions about our techniques or the poetry, people that are new to our work. We hear so many stories. It’s wonderful.

Then, there’s the connection with other potters and the chance to ask about their experiences, their techniques, their hopes. We share stories about events we’ve done and swop ideas and plan where we’ll next get to meet.

We’re with our tribe and it’s wonderful to be a part of.

We made this bowl recently and I was struck by how familiar the colours were. Here you can see the image alongside, of the shoreline by our house. Isn’t it beautiful. Chris didn’t go down to the shore and choose the glaze colours. It’s more like we just have soaked in the colours here and they flow out of us into the work we do. I’ve often wondered what our work would look like if we lived in the city….

We love the work of our friend and fellow artist Si Smith whose work is based in his home city of Leeds – people, architecture, the ways people travel through life.

I guess ours is the lines in the sand, the tidal pools, the spirituality of the wild places.

Both have such value. The connection to our land, to the place, to the people we are surrounded by, the conversations, the hopes, the dilemmas..

The colours here are so beautiful. Soft, grey, clear. They still the soul and you can rest in them. Although our work is not fundamentally about the Cowal Peninsula, or even Argyll, the very being of it seeps through into what we do together – the words and the shape and form and colour.