Zantium Studios. Craft courses, booked online.

Peter and Alison met at art college in London and founded Zantium in 1998. Three years later they moved to Godfrey Hole House, an old farmhouse near Wirksworth on the edge of the Peak District, with a studio built on.

Peter, a Royal College of Art graduate and former illustrator, makes the mosaics and murals and teaches. Alison, a textile designer, designs for Zantium and runs the courses. One website has to serve four businesses:

• Craft courses for four to eight people: mosaic, stained glass, willow, bookbinding, calligraphy and more, many taught by visiting tutors
• Mosaic and mural commissions for homes, schools, hospitals, councils and charities such as the Woodland Trust
• Art projects with schools and community groups, from one to five days of workshops
• Two holiday lets: Godfrey Hole Cottage next to the studio, and The Counting House, a Georgian townhouse in Wirksworth

The Web Archive has kept copies of zantium.co.uk since 2002. Side by side, they show a website changing with the business: from one page about mosaics to a shop that takes bookings.

Two things have lasted. The round Z logo first appears in 2003 and is still at the top of every page. And since 2008 each part of the business has had a colour of its own: the four coloured columns of 2008 became today’s four coloured buttons.

Every course has its own page: what you’ll make, who teaches it, the materials, timings and fees, and a list of its upcoming dates. Each date is set up with its own number of places.

zantium.co.uk/courses/mosaic-1-day

On each date’s page, visitors see how many places are left in plain words, from “Several places available” to “Fully booked”, and choose how to pay: a deposit now and the balance a month before, the full fee, or the full fee as a gift.

The mosaic courses on 6 October 2026: seven course pages, eight dates on sale, and the choices on each date.

zantium.co.uk/product/mosaic-2-days

A course date

Date, tutor, places left and price at the top, with the choice of deposit or full payment straight underneath.

• Online booking
• Deposits

zantium.co.uk/courses

The booking system follows the studio’s own terms rather than a shop’s defaults. A deposit secures a place and the balance is due a month before the course. It’s all managed through the site: Peter and Alison can see each booking, what has been paid and how many places are left on every date.

2026 course fees, as listed on Zantium’s course pages. Materials are paid for on the day.

Gift vouchers are on sale too, from £10 up to the price of a five-day course, and can be emailed or posted. A course calendar shows every date, month by month.

Zantium’s work is bright and detailed and looks best large, so photographs lead every page. Commissions and community projects each have a page of their own, and the portfolio holds 47 galleries, filtered by type of work.

The studio’s Instagram feed runs along the foot of every page, so new work and spare places show up on the site without anyone having to update it.

The holiday lets can be booked on their own or with a course. Godfrey Hole Cottage is next door to the studio, with an availability calendar on its page. The Counting House, a Georgian townhouse in Wirksworth, has a website of its own, also by Clifton Media.