The Findhorn Pottery

In 1969 Eileen Caddy received guidance to build four arts and crafts studios in The Park. In 1970 Findhorn Studios Limited was formed to run them. The first studio, the Findhorn Pottery, opened in 1971.

Peter Caddy appointed me as manager. I had little experience, but luckily, Dutch potter Marianne Francken brought me up to speed. She also supplied several glaze recipes, some still form the basis of today’s glazes.

Nigel Hicken became our sales rep and by 1972 we were selling throughout Scotland. The studio soon outgrew its facilities. I obtained plans for a sump oil fired kiln, storing the bricks and parts for it in the double garage next door. However, I left before it was built.

By 1974 Findhorn Studios Limited had become unsustainable. The pottery became a creative space, from which a skilled team emerged to create ceramics for the Community Centre, but by 1978 the studio was again without potters! In 1979 Peter Caddy invited me to return for a year to rebuild the kiln, train up Foundation members and restart the pottery as a business. Back then recycling sump oil in kilns was considered environmentally friendly, despite heavy greasy flakes dropping out of the sky onto everything.

In 1980 I left and the group I’d trained slowly disbanded. A couple of years later the sump oil kiln went into meltdown. The surviving bricks were recycled into a wood kiln which gave good service until it failed to reach temperature in 2003 and has now been partially dismantled.

From 1983-1989 Gay Smith ran the pottery, producing work mainly for Foundation departments, and a little for sale. Gay built the gas kiln which, two rebuilds later, is still the main production kiln.

From 1983 I approached the Foundation a few times with a view to restoring the pottery as an independent business, to encourage the highest levels of skills, governed by spiritual intent. The right time came in 1989 when Gay returned to America and I began the pottery’s next chapter. Together with Colin Cafell and my partner, Franck Darte, I started rebuilding it as an independent business, teaching at the Steiner School to supplement my income. However, Colin returned to London after six months. In 1994 I left the Steiner School and Franck and I concentrated on the pottery.

In 1999 Franck died and I relied on Belia Biesheuvel and Elinor Drake to support me during this difficult period. In 2000 I started to plan for my retirement in 2005. I wished to leave the pottery to someone who would honour the original vision. I had intuitively felt Belia Biesheuvel’s importance for the pottery when she arrived in 1996. Her great affinity to the clay, shown during her apprenticeship in 1997, and her financial and business background, made her the right person to take on the studio in 2005. She has renewed and renovated it into a vibrant profit-making concern. In my retirement I continue as a consultant.

Brian Nobbs