Seven Limes Pottery, in Manchester, may just be a brief walk from Piccadilly’s bustling train station, but once through the doors you step into a world of calm and creativity.
Founded by mother and son team Wendy and Sam Andrew, this is a place for new, budding and committed potters, offering one-off classes, workshops and weekly classes.
Wendy spent five years at art college, graduating from Middlesex University (also the alma mater of comedian and ceramicist Johnny Vegas) with a degree in ceramics and a desire to commit her career to the art.
She said: "After I graduated, I was offered a role in Nigeria, helping them set up a ceramics industry, but for various reasons it never happened, so in 1981 I left there and came home to Manchester, determined to set up for myself.
"I found a shop in Altrincham that would retail my work and it became a very collaborative process, making sure I created what they knew would sell."
Wendy, who now lives in Altrincham, went on to marry and have three children, Joanne, Sam and Zane.
She added: "I stepped away from pottery for a while and then once the children were all a little older, trained as a teacher, while also doing a course with the Manchester Business Consortium, aimed specifically at artists.
"I ended up teaching at a college in Hulme, then at the same time I cleared out my garage and set up a small studio, where I wanted to both produce my own work and teach."
She said: "Outside the garage was a huge lime tree. Over time it had been pruned back, until there were now seven limes stemming from a single base, so that’s how I came up with the business name."
It became clear to Wendy how powerful working with clay could be for mental health, for both children and adults.
"I had children from my own kids’ school years, I had adult classes, and the common denominator was how thoroughly absorbed every individual was in what they were doing.
"It’s known as mindfulness now – when you’re doing this, you can’t give headspace to any other thoughts."
It was during this period that Sam found his way back to an art form he had known all his life.
"All my children learned the skills from a very young age," Wendy says. "But with no expectation they would follow in my footsteps."
Sam most certainly didn’t. He chose to study neuropsychology at the University of Westminster, before accepting a research position at the University of Manchester. He joined his mother in running classes for the Manchester Ceramics Enterprise, and it changed his life.
"Mum persuaded me to volunteer," he says. "And I was hooked. I ended up completely changing my career, joining forces full time in 2014."
"I retired in 2022, and Sam took over," Wendy added. "He took on the new premises in Manchester in 2024 and now runs it all. I am happily working from my garden studio and just doing my own thing."
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Sam’s work is stunning. His pieces are not thrown on a potter’s wheel, but are carefully hand-built, using clay in multiple fine layers of different colours, meaning every single piece is utterly unique.
"It’s inspired by a Japanese technique, nerikomi,’ he explains. "Which we would translate as agate work, which encompasses marbling, layering and mosaic."
He then, very carefully, lifts the clay into a shape – a bowl, a vase, a drinking vessel, before glazing it and running through the kiln process.
His vases are made using a mosaic-like process, where ‘leftovers’ from his layers of coloured clays are hand-manipulated into a vessel to create something puzzlingly magnetic to the eye.
You can find videos of his process on his Instagram, @sa_ramics, and trust me when I say they are addictive – the sound as much as the visual.
"The bowls were spotted on an Instagram post and now retail through a shop in New York," he says. "The vases I am developing for a gallery exhibition; the plan is to create them larger and larger, but I am so busy with the classes I haven’t been giving that the time it needs."
Sam’s time is very much taken up with running the variety of classes offered by Seven Limes, from ‘make a mug’ to six-week beginner courses throwing pots and bowls on the potter’s wheel or hand-building, or both.
"Often people will come for a short course, and then just keep coming," Sam says.
"At the moment we have three tasters – throwing, hand-building and throwing, and then a mug-making hand-building one, but I want to develop something with more artistic intention."
"It captures people at all levels of interest," Wendy adds.
"That’s unusual, I do discourage people from buying equipment straight away, but it can get addictive. One of the reasons we moved here was to create a space where the more experienced students could just come, at any time, and do their thing.
"We have people who have been attending our classes for years, developing skills in making and glazing.
"It’s a community. One of our attendees set up everything they need in a home studio but then keeps coming back here; it felt too isolated, too alone, at home.
"For many, it’s the first time they have been out of their own heads for a while. It’s immensely therapeutic, you can just lose time. It happens to me, still, when I am creating and experimenting; hours just vanish."
Wheel of fortune
I was, understandably, a little nervous about trying something so out of my comfort zone, and it certainly wasn’t the work experience assignment I had anticipated, but Sam was very encouraging and patient – although I must say he made it look a lot easier than it actually is.
The process requires intense concentration but is calming, as I entered a world of creativity far beyond my everyday experience. It is a physical process as much as a mental one and was both immense fun and left me with a sense of achievement. Trying out a new skill was stimulating and I was very proud with my finished piece.
Eloise Edge
Eloise joined Cheshire Life for five days’ work experience as part of her sixth form studies at Bishop Heber High School in Malpas.
Taking our work experience student, Eloise, with me we both approached the wheels with trepidation. Luckily, expert Sam was on hand to guide us.
We first cut our hunks of clay, then had a merry time slapping the squarish chunk into a smoothish sphere. Sam’s hands move like lightning; we two amateurs were tentative yet ultimately successful.
Sam then gave us a demonstration of what we would be doing, with the most important rule reiterated: “keep your elbows down”. He centred the clay on the wheel and drew it down to a dome shape.
We took our seats and worked the pedal to get the wheel spinning at the correct speed before lowering our hands to the clay, elbows firmly down.
The right pressure here, a careful raise there and first a saucer, then a bowl, then a vase appeared, as if by magic. I confess, Sam’s most frequent instruction to me was “keep your elbows down”, as my glee overtook me, but oh, the thrill of successfully completing each stage is immeasurable.
I have added ‘vouchers for Seven Limes’ to my Christmas list already.
Kate Houghton
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