There’s a quiet revolution happening in kilns across the country. While the world scrolls endless AI images and chain stores churn out disposable homeware, a generation of potters are pushing clay into a new space — one that feels raw, rebellious, and defiantly human. On Sunday 7th December 2025, that movement arrives in Norfolk with the launch of the first-ever Norwich Ceramics Market at The Forum.

The driving force is Nicole Flack, ceramicist and founder of Cretaceous Creations. Known to the Paleoart and ceramics crowd for her cult dinosaur mugs and fossil-inspired pottery, Flack’s work is as playful as it is functional. Her pieces often look like they’ve been dug straight out of a rockface, a nod to her childhood obsession with palaeontology. “I never set out to make ‘safe’ ceramics,” she laughs. “Clay should be alive, weird, and fun. Who wants another Ikea cup?”

Flack’s journey into clay only began in 2022, when she signed up for classes at The Clay Studio in Ashdown Forest to deal with work stress. “The teachers were so patient, and the act of working with clay grounded me instantly,” she says. Dinosaurs soon crept back into her work, and when people began asking to buy her pieces, Cretaceous Creations was born. Since then, she’s been a regular on the indie ceramics market circuit and at the Lyme Regis Fossil Festival, where her mugs have become cult collectibles among paleoart enthusiasts.

Now she’s bringing that energy to Norwich. Having grown up in Norfolk after moving from London as a child, Flack wanted to connect her home region to what she sees as a national indie ceramics counterculture. “I’d experienced the London scene — so much creativity, so much DIY spirit. I knew there was space to bring that same attitude to Norwich and mix it with the incredible local talent here.”

The result is a market featuring over 50 makers from across the UK, selling everything from mugs, plates, and bowls to wild, punk-inspired creations featuring animals, dinosaurs, and mythical beasts. It’s about function — the cup you drink from every morning — but also about defiance. “Pottery is anti-disposable,” Flack says. “Every thumbprint and glaze run proves there’s a human behind it. That feels radical when so much around us is soulless and mass-produced.”

Flack calls the ethos behind the event the Homegrown Pottery Society. Not a formal group, but a way of life. A reminder that choosing a handmade mug over a factory one isn’t just aesthetic — it’s political. It’s the same spirit as DIY zines, underground music scenes, or punk craft collectives: messy, unpolished, but alive with energy and meaning.

Ceramics has seen a boom in recent years thanks to The Great Pottery Throw Down, but Flack’s vision pushes further. This isn’t about genteel teapots on plinths. It’s about clay as counterculture, as resistance, as joy. “Ceramics doesn’t have to sit in a glass case,” she insists. “It can be loud, funny, strange — and still be the plate you eat your breakfast from.”

On December 7th, The Forum will become more than a venue. It will be a proving ground for the next wave of indie potters, each piece a small act of rebellion against speed, sameness, and consumer culture.

As Flack puts it: “The Homegrown Pottery Society is here to stay. This is just the beginning.”

Norwich Ceramics Market

📍 The Forum, Norwich

🗓 Sunday 7th December 2025 | 10am – 4pm

🎟 Free entry