“My name is Laura Marley and I am an artist from Tyneside. For the past year I have been the Artist in Residence at Jarrow Hall. I love talking to people about art and helping them discover their creativity.
In my work, I focus on what it means to make things with your hands without any special equipment and make something new where nothing existed before.
My main job has been to encourage people to come to Jarrow Hall to explore being creative. I run workshops to show people how easy and enjoyable this can be. It was 20 days work, and 10 workshops, but I haven’t stopped thinking about it here. You can’t spend that much time in a place like this and not want to make things.”
“The process of turning earth into clay can be long. I start with clay straight out of the ground. If it is smooth and can be worked straight away I will use it. Most of the time, I have to I have to let it dry out, then break it up into pieces. When it is completely dry, I can crush it into dust and sieve out any stones or plant roots. Then I leave it in a bucket of rainwater for a while – this is called slaking. When dry clay slakes, it fizzes, hisses and bubbles and releases air. It’s like its coming to life.
Once it has stopped fizzing and has soaked in water for a while, I can then spread it out onto plaster until it is the right texture to use for making things. It is gloriously smooth and cold and glossy. Thankfully, Jarrow Hall is so busy with farming, building and gardening, there is always a heap of clay to be found somewhere!”
“The tiles on the wall were made by people who attended the workshops I ran here as part of the residency. Starting in the spring of 2025, I made tiles covered with Jarrow Hall clay. I invited participants to use plants from Jarrow Hall and press them into a tile while it was still soft. This has made a visual record over the year of how the environment around us changes with the seasons, coming full circle back to spring again. The changing of the seasons was just as important to the Anglo Saxons as it is to us”
“As well as artworks, I have made lots of things I hope will be useful to the people who work at Jarrow Hall as reenactors. They make history come to life, just like I try to do with the things I make.
As a group, we also made the loom weights for a piece of art. The loom weights we made will be given to the reenactors here once this exhibition is over. Next time you come, have a look and see if they are being used on the loom in the Thirlings.”
“There are a lot of knowledgeable and dedicated people here at Jarrow Hall who have created lots to be inspired by. I am full of ideas and will keep making thanks to all the things I’ve seen here. I think this is the ideal environment to fuel my creativity and I hope it does yours too!”
