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MUD & WATER - A weekend of open water swimming & pottery.

Sunday 7 September 2025 17:00
Friday 12 September 2025 14:00

Coombe Farm Studios (map)

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A five day immersive dive into swimming outdoors and into pottery, tutored by experts in their field. This course is for anyone that loves swimming outdoors, who also wants to spend some time in the pottery - throwing at the wheel and hand building, including slab building, using moulds and simple pinch and coiling techniques.

Coombe is located 1 mile from the banks of the River Dart and the village of Dittisham, the site where the infamous Dart 10K finishes each year. During the weekend there will be swims in the River Dart and along the nearby coast between Dartmouth - Bantham (exact locations will determined by weather). Each swim will be tutored and led by Outdoor Swim Society former Director and Muse Kari Furre, with a professional support boat. Kari is also an artist, specifically a sculptor working with metal and fish skin. She has also recently been experimenting with pottery and will attend the pottery sessions with Laurel and Jodie.

Our on site pottery runs year round with specialist pottery courses for beginners to advanced potters. Our weekly classes are attended by 40 participants during term time; we also have members who access the studio to make their own work and run an apprentice technician programme. Both of our pottery tutors for this weekend also teach on our year round pottery courses.

Laurel Keeley is a master potter who has taught at Coombe for over ten years. Laurel works with coloured slips and drawn line in stoneware and porcelain clays, with glazes and oxides applied. It is a hugely admired and distinctive style and Laurel is an excellent teacher. She is also a keen swimmer, has been taught by Kari and completed the Dart 10K. During the weekend Laurel will teach handbuilding and she will join the swims.

Our third tutor is Jodie Crook Giles. Jodie will be leading the pottery sessions on the wheel and has extensive experience in teaching throwing. Jodie was taught at Coombe by Laurel which re-ignited her love of pottery, and set her off on a journey to becoming a pottery apprentice at Dartington. She then developed her teaching practice alongside her own work. Jodie teaches specialist throwing and glazing immersive courses at Coombe, and is also a keen outdoor swimmer, so she’ll be jumping in the water with you too!

The swims will take place daily Monday-Thursday in the River Dart and nearby sea locations on the coast near Coombe. The pottery sessions will also be daily and you will have the chance to throw on the wheel as well as handbuild.

SCHEDULE: Sunday // 5-7pm Residents arrive // 7.00pm non-residents arrive followed by welcome drinks and dinner // Monday-Thursday // 8.30am Breakfast for residents // 9.30am Tuition starts //1.00-2.00pm Lunch // 2.00-5.00pm tuition resumes. // Friday // 8.30am Breakfast for residents // 9.30am-1.00pm Final tuition session // 1.00-2.00pm final lunch. The exact schedule of swims and locations are determined by the experience of the grou, weather and tides and will be finalised nearer the time.

**WHAT YOU NEED TO BRING FOR THIS COURS:**
SWIMMING GEAR - We highly recommend bringing a wetsuit so you can stay in the water longer but if you would like to swim without one that's fine too- Beach shoes for getting across pebbles might be useful - Gloves and boots are not obligatory but are useful if you feel the cold & definitely bring a fluffy/warm coat i.e. dry robe or winter ski jacket and Kari always recommends a woolly hat post swim.
POTTERY TOOLS - we will have all the tools you need but if you have your own tools you’d like to bring please feel free to do so. Please also bring a notebook and a sketchbook.

**HOW TO GET HERE:** Our address is TQ6 0JA [What3words: What3words: fulfilled.exploring.branching] and we have plenty of free onsite parking. Trains > nearest station is Totnes then we can arrange lift shares or send taxi details. We are about 20 minutes from the station.
**HOW MANY PEOPLE ON THE COURSE?** Min 6 max 12 to allow the tutor to give everyone enough attention and time on the press.

**EXPERIENCE LEVEL:** We will tailor the course to those that attend and their level of experience in both swimming and pottery. You will need to be able to swim but don’t need to have open water swimming or long distance experience. You can be a beginner in pottery. Likewise if you have experience in either area our expert tutors will give you options and adjustments to help you challenge yourself if you want to.
**COST:** £930 + VAT - includes all accommodation, food, water safety, tuition, materials, pottery clay and firings & transport to swim locations. Non residential price is £730 + VAT to include the above excluding accommodation, breakfast and dinner.
**RESIDENTIAL/NON RESIDENTIAL:** Both options available. Residential option includes all accommodation & food from Sunday evening through Friday lunch.

FOOD & DRINK: Food is a key part of an immersive course at Coombe. Meals are taken at a long shared table with the other participants either inside in the cooler months or outside in our courtyard when the weather is warmer. Our onsite chef caters for you including all/any dietary requirements. We grow our own vegetables and keep chickens for fresh eggs daily. For those that enjoy wine, we have a fantastic wine merchant who supply us with a small range available to buy onsite.

SEASON: We’ve chosen September for this course because the water is at its warmest and its a gorgeous time of year to be at Coombe - it has all the benefits of summer without the crowds. The weather still warm and you’ll be able to work inside the pottery and get outside for walks to gather source materials for the course. If it’s starting to get cooler we can light the log fires. If we get lucky with a warm day we can eat outside. Bliss.

WATER QUALITY & SAFETY: The River Dart near to Coombe has been granted safe bathing status and is monitored regularly by friends of the Dart. That said we will work with our safety team to monitor and asses all the swims on the day, each day, including in the sea. We will assess using local knowledge, wisdom and experience as well as apps including safer seas & rivers service. During the course you will also get teaching and guidance for you to assess swims in your local area.

“The need to swim like that – not for fitness, but to see new things – comes from the same place in my brain as making things,’ Furre explains. ‘They’re both very process-led: about me finding out how to do something, then doing it again and again. It’s all about focus, really. I mean, if you’re swimming or making something and thinking about other things, you might as well not be swimming or making things.’ In other words, Furre’s art and her sport are at a piece with each other – and indeed, at a peace. ‘For me, swimming is travelling through water – and I travel to find it,’ she says. ‘And when you’re in it, you think about the ancient-ness of it. The rivers, the seas – they’re as old as mountains. And we know less about the sea than we do about space. That keeps pulling me back.”

— Kari Furre

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