Workshop
Weekly residential pottery courses with one-to-one tuition.
Spend a week in a 17th century mill, in the Dordogne countryside and improve your skills in, throwing, glazing, decorating and firing stoneware and porcelain. Courses tutored by Sylph Baier, a professional potter with more than three decades’ experience, in a creative and fun environment.
The mill is in an area which is accredited as a bird sanctuary and is situated in a valley with extensive woodland walks.
Included with the Courses
- Bergerac airport or Mussidan train station transfers by arrangement.
N.B. during the winter months there are no flights to Bergerac; arrivals are via Paris or Bordeaux airport followed by a one hour train journey to 24400 Mussidan. - Full board and lodging. Continental buffet breakfast (students make their own breakfast in their own quarters with the food provided at a time of their own convenience; that lessons start at 9am), a 3 course lunch will be taken at 5 different local restaurants, or at the Moulin, with mainly organic vegetables from the garden and a light buffet supper at 6pm. A small carafe of locally sourced organic wine is included. Additional organic wine can be purchased by the bottle. Note: vegans and vegetarians can be catered for.
- Up to 5kg of finished and fired work in Limoges porcelain or 10kg of stoneware clay. (Additional work can be made and is charged separately at Euro 12 per fired and glazed kg of Limoges porcelain and Euro 6 for stoneware).
Tuition
Workshop tuition runs from Monday to Friday, 9-12h and 14-17h and would suit students with some throwing experience but total beginners can also be catered for, as well as other production techniques from hand building to slip-casting, decorating techniques, glazing and firing in an electric or reduction gas kiln.
Accommodation & Prices
Blue room (en-suite shower & toilet)
Double (the Blue Room) with en-suite shower and toilet: € 1750 per student (course fee and full board and lodging).
Double (the Red Room) with en-suite shower and toilet: € 1750 per student (course fee and full board and lodging).
Partners are welcome for a holiday only at € 875 each for full board and lodging without the tuition fees.
If you wish to book, a deposit of 20% secures your booking and is non refundable should you wish to cancel.
The balance is due one month prior to your arrival.
We ask guests to use only environmentally friendly products.
Please note 1: The staircases in the mill leading to the first floor bedrooms are steep and unsuitable for people with walking difficulties and small children and toddlers. We also have uneven flagstones on the entrance of the property which date from the 17th century and access to all parts of the property is at visitors own risk.
Please note 2: We follow permaculture principles and try to live sustainably by conserving water and electricity, growing our own food, and recycling as much as we can. We ask you to support us in this endeavour.
Other Information
Transfers are included from and to Bergerac airport which has flights coming in from Stansted and Southampton. I will need to know your flight number, details and time of arrival and departure, so I can be there to collect you. N.B. During the winter months there are no flights to Bergerac, arrivals are via Paris or Bordeaux airport followed by a one hour train journey to 24400 Mussidan.
You will need to book your flight well in advance arriving on the Sunday and departing on the Saturday.
We stock a good selection of local wines, mainly from the Bergerac and Bordeaux region.
You will need to let me know if you have any special dietary requirements.
There is WiFi but in this rural location it has to be via satellite which can be intermittent.
Please get in touch if you have any additional questions or if you fancy a chat. I can ring you on a landline after 8pm English time.
Further information or if you wish to book, please contact Sylph Baier at info@sylphbaierceramics.com