Mudness Ceramics

Martina MacLeod set up Mudness Ceramics at 16C Balnakeil Craft Village after arriving in Scotland from Austria in 1991 to apprentice under the potter Lotte Glob at the nearby Far North Pottery. She trained originally at the Keramikschule in Stoob and worked in ceramics studios in Austria and Greece before settling on this stretch of the north coast. Her studio shop sells earthenware made using hand-building, slip casting and throwing, fired in alternative and electric kilns, alongside silk scarves and woven rugs. MacLeod also runs classes from the studio for visitors wanting to try the wheel themselves. Balnakeil Craft Village grew from a disused Cold War-era radar station in 1964 and remains owned by the crafters who work there, rather than by a landlord, making Mudness one of a dozen independent workshops on the site.