Paula Armstrong Ceramics

Something happens when you look inside this piece. 🌿

You expect to be looking in. You find you're being looked at.

Looking Back holds a cluster of eye-like forms deep within — and that reversal is the hinge of the whole work. The viewer becomes the observed. The act of looking turns into an encounter.

The gaze from inside can be read in many ways: judgement, memory, curiosity, recognition — or the quiet, constant labour of adapting ourselves to fit what others expect. The eyes inside are like echoes — reminders that the past is never fully past, and that what we have lived continues to lean into the present and shape who we are now.

It's a piece that completes itself differently for every person who meets it. I write the first chapter or two. The viewer brings the rest.

I'm excited to be showing this piece and more from the Potential Inside collection at Cambridge Open Studios this July — with the fabulous painter Karen Jinks in her studio at Stapleford Granary.

📅 Saturday 4 & Sunday 5 July
📅 Saturday 11 & Sunday 12 July
🕙 10am - 5pm each day
📍 Stapleford Granary, Stapleford, Cambridge
🎟 Free entry, no booking needed

Plan your art trail at camopenstudios.org 💛

www.parmstrongceramics.co.uk

It's finally here — and I'm so excited to share this with you! 🎉

Introducing Next Steps in Clay, my brand new online Zoom course for makers who've completed a beginners ceramics course and are ready to take their making to a deeper, more personal place.

This course came directly from a conversation with one of my online members — which feels like exactly the right way for something like this to begin.

Here's what we'll be working on together:

✨ Advanced hand-building techniques to expand your toolkit
🔁 How to embrace testing and experimentation (it really can be excellent fun — especially when you take the pressure off expecting particular outcomes!)
🎯 How to critique your own work honestly so your making keeps developing
🌿 How to define what success means for YOU as a maker — on your own terms

There are no set projects here. No "copy what I make." No single right answer.

Just you, your clay, and 30+ years of experience guiding you towards figuring out what YOUR making wants to be.

Because every maker is unique. And I'd rather celebrate that than limit it.

Book your place at https://parmstrongceramics.co.uk/product/next-steps-in-clay/ Just 8 places available!

Let me tell you a little about how I teach. 🌿

I've been working with clay for over 30 years. And in that time, the thing I've come to believe most deeply is this: there is no single right way to do it.

I do teach hand-building techniques — they're the foundation of everything. But what fires me up as a teacher isn't the technique. It's the moment someone stops trying to copy a result and starts figuring out what THEY want to make.

Every maker approaches clay differently, just like we all approach the world from our own unique perspective. My job isn't to limit that. It's to give you the tools and the confidence to explore it.

In my new Zoom course, we'll cover:

✨ Advanced hand-building techniques as your creative toolkit
🔁 How to test and experiment without the pressure of a "perfect" outcome (honestly, this can be the most fun part)
🎯 How to look at your own work honestly and learn from it
🌿 How to define what success means for YOU as a maker

Mistakes are welcome here. Actually, they're usually where the most interesting things happen.

I want this to feel like a real next step — one that opens things up rather than narrows them down.

Details coming very soon! 💛

www.parmstrongceramics.co.uk

Could this be you? 🌿

This new online course I'm putting together is designed for makers who...

- Have completed a beginners ceramics course and are ready to go further
- Find themselves with clay in their hands but aren't sure which direction to take it
- Have been copying tutorials and feel like something's still missing
- Want to make something that's genuinely THEIR OWN, not just a version of someone else's work
- Are a little scared of making mistakes... but also secretly curious what happens if they just let go and try

I've been in all of those places. And I think the step beyond beginners is one of the most exciting — and most underserved — moments in a maker's journey.

This Zoom course is being built for exactly that. No set projects. No copying what I make. Just a warm, encouraging space to start discovering what your clay can do.

I'd love to know — does this sound like where you are right now? Drop a comment or send me a message 💛

Details coming very soon!

www.parmstrongceramics.co.uk

Remember how it felt to make, just for you?

Most of us forget. Life, criticism, and busy days get in the way. But your creativity is still there, waiting.

Every week, I watch people surprise themselves with what their hands can do. No pressure. Just clay, laughter, and a bit of gold for the cracks.

Curious? Come join us in the studio. Your creative journey starts here. 🌱✨

Something I believe with my whole heart: creativity isn't a luxury. 💛

It's not a hobby for people who have time. It's not something you're either born with or not. It's a core human capacity — and when we use it, something happens. Our brains engage differently. Stress softens. We get absorbed in something outside our own thoughts. We make something that didn't exist before.

The research backs this up: creative activity is consistently linked to reduced anxiety, improved mood, better cognitive function, even physical health benefits. But honestly, I don't need studies to know it — I've watched it happen in my studio hundreds of times.

Someone walks in a little tentative. Hands meet clay. An hour later they're completely absorbed, laughing, focused, alive.

That's not magic. That's what we're like when we're doing something we were built to do.

If you've been telling yourself creativity isn't for you — I'd love to gently push back on that. We all have 'amazing' inside us.

👉 www.parmstrongceramics.co.uk

Something exciting is happening this weekend — and I'd love to see you there! 🌿

I'm going to be part of Hemingford Arts Week, at the Pop-Up Art Studio at Hemingford Abbots Village Hall on Saturday and Sunday.

📅 Saturday 6th & Sunday 7th June
🕙 10am - 4pm both days
📍 Hemingford Abbots Village Hall
🎟 Free entry

I'll have a selection of my hand-built ceramic sculptures on show and available to buy, along with my sketchbooks and inspiration photos so you can see where the ideas begin. I'll also be demonstrating throughout both days — so if you've ever wondered how these pieces actually come to life, come along and watch!

Hemingford Arts Week is a wonderful week full of creativity across the Hemingfords — full programme in the image below.

Come and say hello! 💛

www.parmstrongceramics.co.uk

Something landed in my inbox this week that I'm still smiling about. 💛

I submitted work to "Shared Ground" — an online group exhibition by Rexhibit — and this week they shared some news.

They wrote:

"Your submission stood out for its strong presentation, thoughtful artistic voice, and meaningful connection to the exhibition theme. Through your work, you offer a compelling response to the idea of shared ground as something not only physical, but also emotional, cultural, and relational... We are pleased to share that you have received an Honorable Mention. This recognition highlights the strength of your submission and the thoughtful way your work engages with the theme of coexistence, connection, and belonging."

An Honorable Mention. I'm genuinely moved. ✨

I've been thinking lately about what it means to just make honest work — not chasing what's fashionable, just true to what I see and feel. To be recognised specifically for artistic voice and authentic connection to theme, right when I'm sitting with that question, feels like a quiet but significant thing.

The piece is from the Potential Inside collection — work about what we carry inside. Hidden structures. Quiet resilience. The parts of ourselves we rarely show. I've always believed those are our shared ground: the interior things that make us human together.

Thank you, Rexhibit, for seeing it that way. 🌿

See the full exhibition: https://www.rexhibit.art/group-exhibition/shared-ground