CAST-Off Summer 2025
Our CAST-Off programme of free artist-led creative activities will return this summer, with sessions taking place on Saturdays from 26 July to 23 August in the walled garden at National Trust Penrose.
MAKE A BOAT THAT FLOATS
Use driftwood, feathers, twigs and leaves to make a boat that floats at CAST, then make the short walk down to the Cober River with your friends and family to make it sail.
Easter Nests
Join Lucy Grant and the CAST learning team to make a safe nest for your Easter eggs from wild materials. This free drop-in workshop is suitable for families and open to anyone of any age who would like to join in.
Make a Spring Thing
Create a ‘Spring Thing’ of your choice from clay, with ceramicists Finn Leaman and Rosa-Lily James.
Shadow Play Workshop
Join Lucy Grant and the CAST learning team in our ground floor studio for a drop-in shadow play workshop.
Concertina Story Books
Join the CAST learning team to paint or draw a concertina story book.
Arrietty
Based on Mary Norton’s popular story, Arrietty follows a family of Borrowers – tiny people who use human neighbours’ everyday objects fort their own purposes
Children's Christmas Films
A selection of animated films for children will be shown in the black box screening space in parallel with the Christmas workshops on Saturday 14 December.
Christmas Print Workshop
Join Lucy Grant and the CAST learning team to print home-made cards, tags and wrap in time for Christmas.
Portrait Pots
Ceramicists Finn Cameron and Vicky Wiltshire will be on hand to help you fashion your own small object and animate it with facial expression.
Block Print
Use our block print stamps and the three primary colours (magenta, cyan and yellow) to create unique tessellating designs, building up the layers to create a myriad of colours.
Tiny Neolithic Vessels
Fashion and decorate your own tiny bowl or beaker with the types of simple tools used in the Neolithic period.
CAST-Off Saturday 24 August
Use natural pigments to create your own colours to paint with in our colour kitchen. Make tiny clay piskie party ware at Mud Club. Build your own wooden construction. Create prints using different types of seaweed!
CAST-Off Saturday 17 August
See the world through a colourful new lens using specially made kaleidoscopes. Learn how to polish Serpentine into a shiny pendant. Paint your own plants and creatures and add them to a giant garden landscape frieze, and mould creatures out of clay to inhabit the garden.
CAST-Off Saturday 10 August
Transform yourself into a mythical creature by making your own folk-inspired mask. Build your own wooden construction. Gather natural materials and use them to make a cyanotype print, using the power of the sun.
CAST-Off Saturday 3 August
Use natural pigments to create your own colours to paint with, in our colour kitchen. Build your own wooden construction. Make houses, people, cars, trees, and animals to create a clay world!
CAST-Off Saturday 27 July
Join our talented artist team to learn how to engrave a tiny plate to print on our miniature printing press. Draw or press your own tessellating patterns into clay, using a set stamps made especially by the team at Clay Trap
CAST-Off Summer 2024
Our CAST-Off programme of free artist-led creative activities will return this summer, with sessions taking place on Saturdays from 27 July to 24 August in the walled garden at National Trust Penrose.
FOLD-OUT STORY BOOKS
Lucy Grant will lead a free workshop for families with children to make fold-out concertina books, draw picture journeys and map imaginary worlds.
BOTANICAL SPECIMENS
For this Easter holiday family workshop CAST’s black box will be transformed into a fun and informative immersive environment for exploration and play.
Children's Films
A selection of children’s films will be shown in CAST’s black box screening space every day, Tuesday to Saturday, during the Easter holidays.
Creatures from the kiln
Join ceramicist Sarah Fassnidge from Clay Trap in CAST’s learning studio to make your own creature, talisman or charm.
WALL-E
A much-loved and entertaining animation with minimal dialogue, Wall-E tells the story of a small, rather hopeless-looking robot
CAST-OFF: MAKE AND PLAY AT CHURCH COVE
Make a brush, paint a pebble, dam the stream and see what will float.