Teaching has been Rosie's
life.
Having completed 3 years
of teachers' training studies at Wall Hall College, gaining a
distinction in her main subject, Art, Rosie
then taught at a large comprehensive school in Camberley, Surrey
covering GCSE and A Levels as well as adult education.
Moving to Luxembourg some
45 years ago with a young family, she started a private studio
teaching multinational and multilingual students with a diverse
range of abilities and artistic backgrounds; from
Japanese to Icelandics, Hungarians to Australians - even
Argentinians - and everyone else in between.
She mounted students’
exhibitions at a variety of venues around the Grand Duchy to promote and
to motivate a higher level of achievement. Rosie and her students also visited local
exhibitions in neighbouring countries and in the United Kingdom to see a wide selection of
European potters’ work and ideas.
She was awarded an MBE in the
1996 New Year's Honours for services to the British Community in
Luxembourg,
In England, she found that, sadly, nearly all adult education classes had
vanished – certainly all ceramics classes - even in schools. As a
result there was a severe lack of 'clay experience' around, though
since The Great Pottery Throwdown has aired on television,
more is becoming available.
She renovated a
lovely south-facing studio out of an old greenhouse with a superb
view of Devon’s rolling hills, which became a fantastic place for
students to work and marvellous for her in which to teach. Rosie
operated as a proper school ceramics department working the academic year
with
10, 11 or 12 weeks a term and breaking for half term and school holidays. The
children and adults ranged in age from 6 to whatever and Rosie covered
all aspects of clay work, including the wheel, using stoneware and
earthenware glazes. Rosie had a wide range of glazes, which she
obtained
from Bath Potters Supplies and Botz in Germany. She prefered to charge an
all-in price that covered clay, all tools, moulds, glazes, oxides and
firings. That way, students got to use a large variety and choice of
materials and glazes, which they might not otherwise have been able to
afford. All Rosie asks them was to bring an apron or an old shirt.
Classes were limited to 10 students, on Tuesdays and Wednesdays, both mornings and evenings.
The friendly ambiance
within the studio, working to music and a coffee, enabled everyone to
relax and to produce of their best. No two people were doing the same
pieces as they followed their own programme, at their own level, with
some guidance and stimulation from a project sheet - or their
own ideas of course.
