Menu

Workshops

Our workshops will be returning soon...

In 2025 we launched our first seasonal program of hands-on courses, held at our studio in East Sussex, as well as a walking workshop, exploring the materiality of our local landscape.

The studio courses and walking workshops focussed on understanding materials, their landscape origins and practical methods of processing and making.


2025 courses at our studio:

Winter (Pre-Vernal) – Working with Coppiced Timber – 7th March

Spring (Vernal) – Working with Natural Paints – 25th April

Summer (Aestival) – Working with Waste Excavation Earth – 20th June

Autumn (Serotinal) – Building with Harvest By-Products (plants) – 10th October

The first walking workshop was in the South Downs in East Sussex, looking at chalk, flint and lime – 9th May

In addition to this program we also run 6 live online workshop events throughout the year, more information can be found at our Substack journal – Grounder

Chalk walk, East Sussex. May 2025
Coppiced timber workshop participants. March 2025
Coppiced timber workshop. March 2025

Feedback from workshop attendees:

Thank you SO MUCH for yesterday. It was such a brilliant day. I loved it all – context, people, flowers at lunch, making. I can’t stop looking at my bricks. It was all so well set up and a really perfect pace throughout the day. Everyone on the train was saying how much they learnt. Hope the clear up wasn’t too bad. – Rebecca

Couldn’t have enjoyed it more. Super interesting people, day, location. Sign me up! – Gareth

Dear Ben, Loretta, Matilda,
Thanks so much for curating the chalk walk last Friday. I was inspired by your insights, and the group that assembled around you. Personal highlights included: Seeing (and touching) the evolving flintwork walls as we moved around the town; the tea break at the top of the hill, where we heard different people’s perspectives and ate cementitious snacks; learning from Andy (at Human Nature) about how we might scale these ideas – I’ve been following the Phoenix development for a while, so it was great to hear about their challenges and successes. – Victoria

I really enjoyed it all, particularly learning about the history and application of flint.  I found it a good pace and group of people too. – Shirin

It was a really inspiring day full of information, knowledge, experiences and outstanding food to top it off. You all created such a warmth around the day, I’m not someone to usually gets too involved but something about the environment and the way the day was put together made me feel like the options were endless and wanted to get stuck in. It made me question, observe and think far more deeply than expected. It was a joy to spend the day with you. It’s a shame I couldn’t make the coppice workshop and hope you do another on of these next year as I’d love to come. – Ben

Thank you all for putting it on. I had a really fantastic time and it was lovely to meet you. – Charlie

The way the day was structured and paced was exemplary. We learnt so much in a relatively short amount of time with lots of opportunity to move around the studio and try out different methods of making. There was so much raw material and so many tools available, it all felt really generous and enabling. Our group of 12 all got on brilliantly from the outset and by the end of the day were working together on small joint projects with calm and respect. Many people exchanged contact details and were saying they would let each other know about this and that. I can’t not mention the rammed-earth style ginger flapjack for elevenses or the lunch with nasturtium adorned salad – real treat stuff. It is quite a big deal for me to take a ‘day out’ like this at the moment, but I must say this was time truly well spent. I *cannot* stop looking at the bricks I made, and I really hope I get to put some of what I learnt into action soon, either in my front garden or on the allotment. Thank you so much Ben, Loretta and Matilda. What a brilliant team. – Rebecca

Sweet Chestnut lath making
Making natural paints
1:1 prototyping
Working with earthen materials
Blending earthen materials
Natural paints to preserve external timber
Lime and clay plastering