Festival of Hobbies - Pottery
Pottery is popular at Harland Works because Steve runs the Blue Elephant Pottery here - (and shhhh soon there may even be a second pottery on the cards!)People often say they know about Harland Works because that’s where they go to do pottery and I’ve heard lovely things said by people who come about how much they enjoy the sessions. Olivia Cox, one of the people who come regularly, was kind enough to talk us to us about her pottery hobby.
She’s been coming every week for about a year now, and says she looks forward to every session. “It’s kind of addictive”. She admits to being quite a creative person - and enjoys other creative hobbies such as painting and gardening - but it was the aspect of working with clay that first really drew her to trying pottery just over a year ago.
“I really love this feeling of working with the clay. It's a very mindful experience: you're working very intimately with a piece of material that does what it wants - as well as what you want it to. So it's a kind of a collaborative process with the natural material and your own creative ability.
I asked her to describe what a session is like:
“So you come, you create something on the wheel or something by hand. The next week you can come and you can turn it so you can shape it again and refine its structure and build on it or take little things off it or whatever. And then the following week, you'll glaze it and then you might glaze it again. So it takes two or three weeks or more to actually create something. And at the end, you're so excited, Oh, what am I going to collect at the end of this session? Will I be bringing something really lovely home? And so many times there are really interesting and beautiful pieces, and other times there are ... you expect to bring something home that you really love and it's just not turned out how you expect it. So, as I say, it's kind of addictive. You've got to come, you've got to keep coming to take home the piece that you want”.
Like other people we have spoken to who love their hobbies, Olivia says that having pottery as a hobby has been really helpful for her.
“I started at quite a difficult time in my life, so it was a way of taking my mind away from things that were challenging for me. And it's provided me a very powerful sense of the ability to reflect and take time for myself and just focus on what I'm doing rather than being busy or rushing around or worrying about people or anything like that. So it's a creative outlet, which is also very healing. It's a very meditative experience”.
Olivia says although she started as complete beginner, she’s developed quite a bit over the year although she still doesn’t feel good at it. The appeal is rather in the process of doing it, than being good at it. Being absorbed in doing it. And doing something with other people she likes:
“They are lovely people. Steve's lovely. I think it works really well for a lot of people coming to his classes. Although I’m going to whisper that as I don’t want it getting too busy!”
I asked Olivia what advice she might give about taking up a hobby to get through times that are difficult - particularly when they might think that the last thing they’'ve got is time to spend on themselves? And then also, what advice about how to go about taking up pottery.
She said: “I think taking up a hobby is a really valuable thing to do. Any commitment when you're not feeling particularly good about life, death, the universe and everything or anything is good and I think taking up a hobby is a really valuable way of committing to something for yourself, of creating a goal, of finding a focus where everything else may or may not appear to be chaotic.
It's about finding that sense of structural stability that fits you. Other people don't need to be necessarily involved with it - or negotiated with. I think it is a really valuable way of finding yourself as individual, but yes, you do have to be committed to it in order to get something from it”.
It seemed to me that taking up a hobby when you feel down is quite a hopeful thing to do. Olivia agreed: “Absolutely yes. It's something that requires a particular state of mind that says, "I'm willing to do that and I'm willing to commit the time for myself."
In terms of taking up pottery Olivia says:
“There are lots of opportunities out there. It's not a very cheap hobby, but it can be done at various different prices. So you can buy a little bit of clay and do sort of a bit of sculpting at home but you wouldn't necessarily be able to fire it. So you'd have to find some way to fire it and glaze it. It does help enormously having a facility like this Blue Elephant.
I said that the pottery gets quite booked up and Oliva agreed. “But there are lots of potteries in Sheffield. Although the Blue Elephant is a really good facility!
But people can do introductory courses. There are lots of people doing pottery around Sheffield, so it's quite easy to find people who are happy to run courses.
So, an easy hobby to have a go at?
“It's certainly an easy to try hobby, don't expect great results at the beginning!”
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If you’d like to get in contact with Steve at the Blue Elephant Pottery to find out about trying some pottery a good place to start off is with his website: http://www.blueelephantpottery.co.uk/
On Saturday 18th January the pottery will be open for visitors from the Festival of Hobbies to visit and find out more.