Paint It Green

Our Sustainable Studio

Here at Pitter Potter Tenbury Wells, we think all businesses have a responsibility to look after the planet - it’s the only one we’ve got, after all! We may be tiny, but we’re doing our very best to keep our impact minimal. As our valued customers, we’d love to share our methods with you!

Going Green, Right from the Start

In the Olden Days, before Pitter Potter existed (2023), we had a question: How can we set up a pottery studio whilst helping the planet and keeping to a budget? We found a few ways, and here they are!

  • May 2023

    The second we got our hands on the building, we set to work tiling the entire ground floor. Okay, we were mostly thinking about flood resilience, but the environment benefits too: not only are tiles a totally plastic-free flooring material, they also won’t have to be replaced next time the river comes to pay us a visit! Saving money; saving waste.

  • July 2023

    We found ourselves with an empty building, totally devoid of shelves (Which isn’t very useful when you need to display lots of pottery.) After a bit of poking around, we discovered a huge heap of wooden planks in the attic! The builders worked their magic, we grabbed our paint brushes, and there you have it! Our beautiful pastel shelves are 100% reclaimed wood, reused from this very same building.

  • September 2023

    We’d be a pretty rubbish pottery studio if we didn’t have any tables and chairs! As we were on a budget, nipping to IKEA wasn’t on the cards - but who needs to, with FaceBook Marketplace at their fingertips? We whizzed around the county, hoovering up chairs, and our tables are the result of an exciting trip to Scarborough in a hired van! And there you have it: gorgeous shabby chic, without costing the Earth.

  • November 2023

    Preloved furniture is great, but sometimes only made-to-measure will do. This was the case with our counter, so we set off to find a carpenter. We couldn’t believe our luck when we discovered a firm who only use reclaimed scaffjolding boards and were just five minutes up the road! Now, when you come into the studio and see our beautiful counter, we think you’ll agree that those scaffholding boards are living their best life!

  • June 2025

    We won’t lie, our first two winters were freezing (you try keeping an old, damp building warm with two ancient fan heaters!) We were desperate to solve the problem, but didn’t want to resort to anything that emitted greenhouse gases. But, with some research, we did! We have installed UK-made, state-of-the-art, infrared heating panels throughout the studio. These are really clever because they heat things, not space, so we don’t get lots of wasted energy going out of the door. They’re also super eco-efficient and, because our electricty provider uses 100% renewable energy, we can turn them on guilt-free.

  • July 2025

    Did you know that 1 million trees are felled every day just to make loo rolls? We are not okay with that, so in Summer 2025, we switched the supplier of our loo roll, tissues and kitchen roll to Naked Paper - a really cool copmany that only uses 100% recycled materials (or 100% sustainable bamboo) to make their products. Give them a try at home! You won’t be disappointed.

Love Paint, Hate Waste

Did you know that two weeks’ worth of the studio’s waste can fit into a tiny carrier bag?
We’re very proud of that! But how do we do it?

  • 10th birthday painting party

    Recycle, Recycle, Recycle

    We;re quite keen on our recycling, in case you hadn’t noticed! If you bring any bottles, packets, cups or wrappers to snack while you paint, leave them with us at the end. Rest assured, they’ll be sorted by hand, go into our colour-coded recycling bins and be responsibly disposed of. (But to go one better, bring your drinks and nibbles in reusable containers from home!)

  • Young couple painting pottery

    Food Waste...

    …is most definately minimal! Even we draw the line at trying to recycle half-eaten sandwiches, but since we don’t serve food or drinks, this isn’t a frequent problem. There used to be a lot of food waste from Birthday parties, but since we changed the policy (non-perishable nibbles only!) we’ve seen a huge improvement.

  • Pottery Painting Group

    Single-Use Coffee Cups

    Did you know that 2 billion coffee cups are thrown away every year in the UK? We think that’s awful! We wash out and recycle any single-use cups brought in by our visitors, but we’re trying to reduce the amount that are used. How can you help? By planning ahead and bringing your hot drink in a flask! (or bring your own reusable coffee cup - any of Tenbury’s cafes will be happy to fill it for you)

  • Adult Guided Painting

    Paint-Rescuing

    Granted, it’s not the most exciting of jobs, but we think it’s very important! When painters over-estimate how much paint they’ll need, and leave a palette full of pretty colours at the end, one of us will scoop each colour back into its bottle. That way, it can be reused and doesn't just end up down the sink (we don’t always have time to do this though, so please use up everything in your palette!)

  • Mother daughter painting gonks

    Paper Towels...

    … are nowhere to be found! While you paint, you’ll be given a piece of cloth to keep you paintbrush dry. We take all the cloths home at the end of the week to be washed, and the cycle begins again! (Oh, and you won’t find any in the WC, either. That’s what the handtowel is for!)

  • Painting Events

    Baby Wipes

    Turns out, baby wipes are completely evil and never decompose. So, we banned them! Instead, we use soft flannels dipped in lukewarm water to clean little hands and feet at our printing appointments. Just like the painting cloths, these are then washed and ironed back at home.

  • Colorful disposable cups and plates stacked on a wooden table in a dining area.

    Single-Use Partyware

    This was a bit of a problem - so we solved it! Parents holding a children’s Birthday in our party room no longer need to stock up on paper plates, thanks to our stock of bright and colourful picnic ware - totally reusable and made of recycled wood fibre!

  • Coffee mug on a crumpled newspaper on a wooden surface.

    Bubblewrap...

    …is banned! We display your pottery in our windows until you come to collect it, and we always ask you to bring a box and some tea towels to transport your pottery home. For those who forget, we use newspapers donated by our neighbours, and the boxes that our pottery deliveries come in!

  • group of women at a hen do painting pots

    Plastic-Free Packaging...

    …on all of our pottery! We get the blank bisque shapes delivered from our wholesalers, and we’re glad to report that it arrives in cardboard boxes with cardboard inner packing. No plastic, bubblewrap, polystyrene or packing peanuts!

The BIG Questions

Dear Pitter Potter Tenbury Wells, I’ve Been Wondering…

  • Ah. That question. Okay, so, we don’t have the facilities or time to make anything on-site, so we buy our pottery from several UK suppliers. Some of our pottery is made in Britain or Europe (yay!), but unfortunately, quite a lot does come from China and Thailand. We’re not comfortable with this, so we’re currently working hard on switching to purely European-made pottery. However, it turns out UK-made bisque is rather expensive, and we don’t want to put that extra cost onto you, our visitors. Basically, we know we’ll find a solution, but we’re not quite there yet!

  • We are proud to say that our daily commute has a carbon footprint of zero! (It’s a wonderful benefit of living ten minutes walk from the studio) Our team also bring their own metal water bottles and reusable lunch boxes, so no waste there, either!

  • They are indeed! We use our brilliant local printers, The Ink Spot, and we were very specific when we requested recycled paper for our leaflets. When you’ve finished with your leaflet, you can either bring it back to us to reuse, or pop in in your paper recycling - don’t break the cycle!

  • It does, but we’d be a bit stuck without it! Our kiln runs off the electricty, and we’re very careful to only go with suppliers who use 100% renewable resources. Obviously it’s best to use as little electricity as possible, but at least we know it’s not causing pollution. Another great thing about our kiln is that it’s very well-insulated - no heat escapes from it during firing, so no energy goes to waste!

  • Nope, we don’t even have a gas supply! We keep warm in winter with our wonderful infrared heating panels - and you can read all about those in the Green Studio section, further up the page!

  • We’re in the process! We’re a very tiny business, and we don’t manufacture anything. But that doesn’t exempt us from needing to know our impact, and working to reduce it. We’re currently undergoing a full analysis, but this means that all our suppliers also need to be analysed, so there are a lot of logistics to figure out! We’ll let you know when we’ve got some results, but for now, we’ll keep working to minimise our daily impact in any way we can.

  • Don’t worry, it’s completely safe! We get our loo roll delivered from a wonderful company called Naked Paper, who make it all from recycled materials (no, not old loo roll!) The beige colour is just becuase it hasn’t been bleached, meaning that no nasty chemicals have gone anywhere near it!

  • Because we take all the soft packets and wrappers left by our visitors to the supermarket, to be recycled there. It’s easy for us to do, and means that your crisp packet gets a whole new life (plus it saves you walking across the studio to find the bin!)

  • Yes! In 2025, we began ‘Paint With a Purpose’ days, where a percentage of all pottery painted goes to a good cause. On these days, we also have lots of information available about our chosen charity and their good work Our latest charitable event was Wildlife Week, in May, where we donated a percentage of our profits to Buglife!

  • There are plenty of ways you can make your trip more sustainable; here are our Top Picks:

    1. Plan ahead. Make your packed lunch and fill up your coffee flask at home, so that you don’t have any rubbish to dispose of.

    2. If you want to get a coffee in town, pack your own reusable coffee cup to save getting a disposable one.

    3. Just pour out a small amount of paint at a time, and use up everything in your palette to save us having to wash it down the sink.

    4. Visit on a Paint With a Purpose Day or pop a few pounds in our charity box to make a difference while you paint!

    5. You’ll need to collect your pottery when it’s ready If you’re not very local, plan out a whole day in the area, rather than making a long journey for one thing. Alternatively, we can post your pottery back to you from just £4.00.

    6. When you come to pick up your pottery, bring some tea towels and a box to save our newspaper!

Come and join in the fun!

Book a session or get in touch with any questions, suggestions or reflections? We'd love to hear them! Just pop your message in that box down there.