Pottery and other craft sessions to try in Sunderland

Anyone who fancies trying the potter’s wheel and other crafts now has the opportunity in Sunderland.

A new social enterprise making creative activities more accessible has been launched by the team behind one of the North East’s few working potteries.

Alan and Valerie Dunnighan run Mitford Pottery from the BIC in Southwick. They have launched Wear Crafts CIC. The couple are expanding beyond pottery and creating more opportunities in crafts.

Alan, a self-taught potter who was inspired to take up pottery after watching The Great Pottery Throw Down, established Mitford Pottery to share his passion.

After speaking to other community interest companies (CICs), the Dunnighans established Wear Crafts as a separate social enterprise to create a more community-focused offering.

Alan said: “We’d both been thinking about expanding Mitford Pottery, but we wanted to do it in a different way. We wanted to offer something a little bit different, something that was more of a general craft offering and gave something back to the local community.

“We had the seeds of the idea and then had a meeting with the BIC, and it all went from there. They gave us plenty of advice from the get-go and showed us how we could keep Mitford Pottery going while starting Wear Crafts as two separate entities.”

Initial sessions will focus on pottery and glass painting, alongside creative sessions including a take on “sip and paint”.

Participants can book a place and choose to paint a ceramic or glass piece, with plans to introduce a wider programme.

Wear Crafts will open on Tuesdays and Thursdays, 10am-2pm. Visit www.mitfordpottery.com.