A return to the Earth and her materials
My journey to ceramics all started thanks to COVID. It feels strange to be thankful for a global pandemic that caused such global upheaval, disruption, pain and loss to so many. On a journey back to see family after the first hard lock downs and international flight closures to and from the UK, I found myself stuck in my hometown of Pretoria in South Africa unable to return back to my life in England, feeling more and more anxious of the international ban on flights, left in limbo and grounded. To maintain a sense of sanity amid global turmoil and my unease at being unable to move freely, on a whim I decided to turn back to a childhood enjoyment and go to a local pottery class. And the sense of anxiety immediately lifted, I had finally found something to calm my busy mind, a creative outlet to explore my love of the earth and her natural materials. This revived love of clay is the journey I aim to showcase here.
From computers to clay
I am drawn to working with clay, as a direct antidote to my heavily technology-driven profession as a graphic designer, marketing and social media specialist in the charity sector, as a means to explore the tactility and connection to natural materials and flow states that are anchored in natural botanical forms and the natural world. As a sufferer of insomnia and anxiety, I have explored many processes to alleviate these mental health challenges and have found the slow creative process of hand-building with clay, with no use of additional mechanical technology, a key antidote to slowing down in a cultural narrative that heralds speed, progress, deadlines, performance and results-driven outcomes. All of my ceramic works take inspiration from nature, and are an expression and invitation to the maker and the viewer and to slow down to nature’s pace.
