Paula Armstrong Ceramics

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Paula Armstrong Ceramics

I create distinctive visually stunning ceramic sculpture for your home or office as well as teaching. Hi, I'm Paula. Those moments never stop making me smile.

I'm a ceramic artist, educator and founder of Paula Armstrong Ceramics, based in Cambridgeshire. I make one-of-a-kind hand-built ceramic sculptures inspired by the extraordinary forms found in nature – seed pods, shells, sea life, insects and microscopic structures. I'm fascinated by the stories these natural forms tell about resilience, transformation and hidden potential, and I love creating work that invites each person to bring their own experiences and interpretation. Alongside my own practice, I help people discover the joy of working with clay through workshops, mentoring, YouTube and **Creative Clay**, my AI clay coach. Over the years I've met so many people who believed they weren't creative, only to surprise themselves with what they could make. I passionately believe that creativity isn't about being "good at art". It's about curiosity, exploration and finding the confidence to trust your own ideas. Whether someone is making their very first pinch pot or developing their own artistic practice, I love helping people discover what's possible when they give themselves permission to play. Clay has been part of my life for more than 30 years. It has taken me from a school ceramics room, where I learnt mostly by trial and error, to exhibitions, teaching thousands of students, and building a creative community that continues to inspire me every day. Whether you're here because you collect sculpture, want to learn ceramics, or simply love seeing what can be created with a lump of clay, welcome. I'm so glad you're here.

29/09/2026

Need an excuse to escape the festive madness for an evening? I might have just the thing… 🍵🤎

I'm delighted to be collaborating with Matchaeco on a brand-new workshop at my studio in Fenstanton: MATCHA & CLAY: A FESTIVE RITUAL

The idea is really simple. Slow down, learn something new, enjoy some matcha and spend an evening making with your hands.

Matchaeco will begin by introducing us to matcha and showing us how to prepare and whisk it properly – and yes, there will be plenty to drink while we work, including a festive cinnamon matcha!

Then I'll take over and guide you through hand-building your own ceramic matcha bowl and whisk stand.

Three weeks later we'll meet again for a relaxed one-hour glazing session, and I'll get everything fired and ready for you to collect before Christmas. But we're not stopping there. Matchaeco will also provide your matcha whisk, matcha and the essentials you need to make it at home.

So you'll finish with a complete matcha set, two ceramic pieces made by your own hands and the knowledge to actually use them.

Making: Thursday 20 November | 6:30–9pm
Glazing: Thursday 11 December | 6:30–7:30pm
Paula Armstrong Ceramics, Fenstanton
£60 per person

There are only 8 places, so it'll be a lovely small group with plenty of help from both of us.

No previous clay or matcha experience needed.

Come for the matcha. Stay for the clay. Take home a little ritual of your own. 🍵

👉 Booking link: https://parmstrongceramics.co.uk/product/matcha-and-clay/

24/09/2026

October half-term is coming, which means this is the last stretch of raku season.

There's something about raku in autumn that feels exactly right — the cooler air, fire and smoke against the fading afternoon light, the uncertainty of what's going to be revealed in the final clean.

The last studio making session is 27 September. The final firing is 24 October.

If you've been meaning to do it, this is the sign. 🌿

22/09/2026

🔥 The kiln came with me on Saturday!

I loaded everything up and headed over to Culford School for a Raku firing session with 8 of their pupils — and it was such a brilliant day.

If you haven't come across Raku before, it's one of the most dramatic and exciting things you can do in ceramics. You take pieces straight from the kiln while they're still glowing hot, lower them into a reduction chamber packed with combustible material — newspaper, sawdust, whatever's to hand — and then watch as smoke and flame create surfaces that could never be planned or predicted. No two pieces ever come out the same. It's part science, part alchemy, completely thrilling.

Setting up in the school courtyard brought back memories. This is what I love about taking clay experiences out into the world. Not everyone can get to my studio in Fenstanton, but that doesn't mean they can't have an extraordinary creative experience. Over the years I've run beginners' courses in corporate canteen spaces, workshops in village halls, and even a clay session at an outdoor wedding reception. Location has never been the barrier people assume it is.

The pupils' work was extraordinary — and we're not done yet. I'll be heading back to Culford two more times to fire the rest of the pieces they've already made. Watch this space 👀

Curious about bringing a Raku session or clay experience to your school or organisation? Come and say hello: www.parmstrongceramics.co.uk

19/09/2026

Something exciting is happening in the studio right now.

I've been selected to show work in the London Potters' annual exhibition at Morley Gallery in London this November. All three pieces need to be brand new, never shown anywhere else — which is the best possible reason to start something completely new.

These are my very first clay sketches for a direction I've been quietly circling for a while.

Until now, each of my abstract sculptures has essentially represented an individual — one person, their inner world, their hidden potential. But no one exists in isolation. We're shaped by the people around us, by who connects with us and who doesn't, by the relationships that sustain us and the disconnections that can leave us adrift.

I'm beginning to explore sculptures that have a relationship with each other. Families. Friends. Strangers. The space between people — and what that space contains.

I want to explore how shared values and ideals draw us together, how neurodiversity, disability, cultural background or life experience shapes our capacity to connect, and what increasing isolation means for us as a society. And where does technology sit in all of this?

I'm also returning to something from my degree — I studied both ceramics and textiles — and exploring mixed media pieces incorporating textiles, wire, and potentially video and sound into the sculptures.

Four rough little forms on a studio floor. The very beginning.

16/09/2026

This September means one thing above almost everything else: raku workshops.

Every weekend until October half-term, clay goes into the fire and we stand back and watch what happens. The results are unpredictable, dramatic, and honestly a little bit magic — no two pieces ever come out the same.

If you've been curious about raku but never tried it, this is your season. The last studio making session is 27 September, with the final firing on 24 October - one place left. After that, the fire goes out until spring.

Come and watch clay change. 👉 https://parmstrongceramics.co.uk/product/raku-workshop/

07/09/2026

Here's something I genuinely believe: you were born creative. ✨

Every single day, without even noticing, you're making creative decisions.

What to wear this morning. The playlist you put on while you cooked. The way you've arranged things on your shelves. The recipe you tweaked because you'd run out of something. The way you solved that awkward situation at work or at home.

None of that felt like "being creative" did it?

We've been sold this idea that creativity belongs to a special club of people who can draw, paint, or sculpt. But it simply isn't true.

Creativity is how humans make sense of the world and shape it around them. It's self-expression. It's problem-solving. It's building a life that feels genuinely yours.

When we give ourselves permission to explore it more consciously, more playfully, something really interesting happens.

If you've ever thought "I'm not creative" I'd love to gently challenge you to consider creativity as something much broader than being 'good' at art.
..and if clay appeals to you as a way to express yourself, my flexible beginners course in clay is a no-pressure way to explore what your hands can do. No experience needed. No artistic confidence required. Just curiosity. 🌿💖

👉 https://parmstrongceramics.co.uk/product/beginners-ceramics-course/

24/08/2026

Last chance to visit Origins in London — the exhibition closes tomorrow, 25 August!

If you've been putting it off, now is definitely the time 🙂

📍 Gallery 1, 3 Loughborough Street, London SE11 5RB

Book your visit here:
👉 https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/modern-art-exhibition-origins-gallery-visit-tickets-1982972288495?aff=oddtdtcreator

It has been such a joy showing work in London this week alongside so many talented artists. A huge thank you to Monica Mardare for putting together such a thoughtful, generous exhibition — and to everyone who has come to see it 💛

20/08/2026

It's here — Origins opens tonight in London and I am so excited! 🎉

If you can make it, come and join us for an evening of:
- Live jazz
- A dance performance
- Drinks
- A chance to meet the artists

🗓️ Tonight, 20th August, 6:30–9pm
📍 Gallery 1, 3 Loughborough Street, London SE11 5RB

Book your spot here:
👉 https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/open-evening-origins-modern-art-exhibition-tickets-1982971162126?aff=oddtdtcreator

And if tonight doesn't work, the exhibition runs through to 25 August — you can book a daytime visit too 🌿

07/08/2026

Something that popped into my head the other day...

Why do we expect visual artists to put their work into words before it's considered worthy? Before it gets shown, reviewed, or bought?

Here's the thing: many of us work visually BECAUSE it's the language we find easiest. The form, the texture, the way something sits in space... that's us expressing something we literally couldn't say any other way. Asking us to then articulate it back into a written explanation asks us to do the very thing we found difficult in the first place.

And so much of making is unconscious. You don't always know what you're expressing until you see it finished. Sometimes you don't fully understand it yourself until a stranger looks at it and tells you what they see.

Is that a failure? Or is that actually how art is supposed to work?

I genuinely don't think there's one answer here. But I'd love to hear different perspectives. Artists, makers, collectors, people who love art but don't make it... what do you think?

Does the expectation to explain our work in words serve the art? Or does it reflect an old academic tradition that, however well-intentioned, ends up quietly shutting some people out?

Address

5 Rookery Place
Cambridge
PE289LZ

Website

http://www.parmstrongceramics.co.uk/, https://www.elementalartflow.co.uk/, https://www.studio.com/paula-armstrong

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