Join writer and ceramicist Mohamed Tonsy at the National Museum of Scotland to explore Egyptian ceramics and make your own clay piece in this hands-on workshop.

The session will look in detail at ‘olla – terracotta water vessels – and particularly the filters that were hidden inside. These functional filters were often richly decorated with geometric designs and written blessings. In this hands-on workshop you can use these humble but beautiful objects as inspiration to create your own decorative clay piece.

Mohamed Tonsy is an Edinburgh-based Egyptian writer and ceramicist. He moved to Edinburgh to complete his PhD in creative writing, taking up ceramics. Ceramics provides an additional language to express his experiences and intersectional identity, bridging Arabic and English. He has worked with our curatorial team to explore the National Museums collections, through the lived experience of contemporary Egyptian communities.