Our First Market

On Saturday 11^th July, Dorset Clay Cooperative hosted our first summer market. The market featured 27 pottery stalls from a mixture of established ceramicists and potters at the beginning of their journey with clay. We curated the market to include as wide a variety of makers and artisanal works as we could squeeze into the Corn Exchange in Dorchester, Dorset. Our aim was to bring artisan craftsmanship to Dorset and provide an opportunity for a wide breadth of potters to showcase and sell their unique work. 

We are two Dorset potters, Jen Barker and Lucy Foot, who met through pottery and have both set up small home pottery studios in the last five years. We both started pottery as a creative outlet in the years after starting our families. We established Dorset Clay Cooperative in late 2025 when we both wanted more chance to sell in the run up to Christmas. Realising that we needn’t wait to be given the opportunity, we made it for ourselves. Following the success of our pop-up market we decided to branch out into a larger event featuring more potters. The road ahead look unfamiliar and a little bit intimidating, but we both felt passionately about providing an inclusive opportunity for other makers to be able to sell their work too, and also for the public to be able to access handmade ceramics in all its forms. Whilst craft and makers markets are popular in Dorset, ceramics only events are infrequent, many being further afield and more difficult to access for those of us living all the way down here on the south coast.

After months of planning and shamelessly contacting potters we had been admiring through social media, we were excited but also a little nervous for our first big event. We had managed to book Fynn Allen and Diana Parker, two West Country bases potters who had established themselves on Channel 4’s The Great Pottery Throwdown, as well as many other talented creators. We felt unsure of how it would go being the first time anything like this had happened in Dorchester. We were bowled over when the doors opened at 10am and a flood of customers poured into the market. It was a busy day with lots of buying and selling. We took great care to curate the market to include as much variety as possible so there was something for every ceramic’s enthusiast including tableware, Jewellery, garden ornaments, sculpture and wall art. The concept seemed to go down well and we received lots of positive comments from visitors about the range of wares available. Many fascinating chats between makers and customers about their unique creation process.  

The thing we are proudest of as the organisers was the atmosphere of support and encouragement between the stall holders. Everybody was so friendly, inclusive, and interested in each other’s work, whether they were new to selling at markets or seasoned professionals which was reflected in the atmosphere of the day. The feedback we received from customer and stallholders alike, saying how much fun the event was and asking if we were doing it again was unexpected but thoroughly appreciated, and made all of our hard work so worthwhile.

After taking just a few days off to recover, we quickly decided to organise the Dorset Christmas Ceramics Market, in the Corn Exchange, Dorchester. Our second big event will take place on Saturday 5^th December 2026. We have now opened applications to all who would like to join us. If you are interested, please apply through out website dorsetclaycooperative.com. You can also keep up to date on all of our news and events on Instagram @dorsetclaycooperative. We would hope to see you in December for more ceramics, more conversation, and a lot of festive fun!