Two makers, one cooperative, one old school

How it began

In 2015 Bryn and Lowri Evans took a lease on the Hen Ysgol, the old village school on Holyhead Road, with a van of tools, a kiln in pieces and a pile of Penrhyn offcuts. The classrooms had good light and a floor that could carry a ton of slate, which is rarer than you might think. Within a year there was a splitting yard where the playground had been, a chair shop in the cloakroom and a kiln room that still smells faintly of warm clay. The cooperative grew around those benches, once we admitted that two people and a school were more than a partnership.

Bryn Evans, master slate mason

Bryn grew up in the Ogwen valley, where the Penrhyn quarry is part of the skyline, and learned to split slate before he learned to drive. He cuts roofing slate, hearths, cills and thresholds, and he repairs old work with the patience of someone who knows the next mason will be reading it. He also builds the guild’s stick chairs, and he will tell you the pole lathe is the best-mannered machine in the building.

Lowri Evans, studio ceramicist

Lowri throws and glazes the stoneware, and she is the reason the glaze room is full of buckets labelled with stream names. She began by testing whatever she could dig, dry and sieve within a few miles of the workshop, and kept the tiles that worked. Her tableware is made to be used daily and washed without ceremony.

How the cooperative works

Crefftau Eryri is owned by the people who work in it. Each member holds one share and one vote, whatever their hours or seniority. Surplus pays for tools, for repairs to the building and, when we can afford it, for an apprenticeship bench. We would rather grow slowly and keep the work good than grow fast and lose the thread.

Prices are set by what the work costs to make well, with a fair wage inside it. We will tell you what is in a quote, and we will tell you if a cheaper way would serve you better.

Materials and language

Our slate comes from Penrhyn and Ffestiniog stock. Our ash comes from coppices within a few miles of Betws-y-Coed. Our glaze materials come from the valley, though we buy the stoneware clay from a UK supplier. We are happy to say so, because a claim that cannot be checked is not worth making.

Welsh is spoken at the workshop. You are welcome to write, talk or commission in Cymraeg, and we will answer in kind.

The Eryri Maker Directory

Beyond our own benches, we keep a hand-written Eryri Maker Directory of blacksmiths, weavers, stonewallers, basket-makers and roofers whose work we trust. It is not a website or an advertising list. It is a notebook by the kettle, and anyone is welcome to ask for an introduction. Tell us what you need at [email protected], and we will tell you who we would call.

Say hello

For general questions, write to [email protected]. For visits and commissions, use [email protected]. You will find the details in the visiting and commissioning guide, and you can read what we do with your email in our privacy notice.