Pottery Demonstration with Barbel Dister from Cromarty Pottery

Watch potter, Barbel Dister on Thursday 5th March at 7pm for another of her fantastic pottery demonstrations where she will talk us through the process of producing a piece of pottery.

Barbel originally trained as a tile-stove builder in Hamburg, before travelling across Europe working in potteries in Germany, France and Scotland. In 1990 she came to Cromarty to work in Alison Dunn’s Cromarty Pottery, taking it over in the 1990’s when Alison and her husband retired.She makes bowls, mugs, cups, cutlery holders, teapots, jam/honey pots, spoon-rests, candle-holders and many more things.

Barbel says, “I love making pots. I want them to be used and become part of people’s everyday life, make people smile or just enjoy the snug fit of a mug into a cupped hand, holding their morning tea”.

On what inspires her, she says “I like to work on a variety of themes, focussing mostly on the animals, plants and landscapes that surround me and that I love. Chickens, people, snails, the sea, frolicking naked ladies, squint houses and boats sailed by cats or goats, to name but a few. And I like telling stories – like the fox in the trees being watched by the rabbits … a sea-monster lurking underneath an oil-rig or mice having a dance underneath the floor.”