Pots at Pepenbury

Over three sessions our patients have been working with service users from Pepenbury on a collaborative pottery piece.

Pepenbury is a local charity that provides high quality care and support for adults with a learning disability and complex needs.  They achieve this through the provision of full-time residential care, supported accommodation, day service activities and community support.

The first session took us to local house and sculpture gardens, Marle Place.  We took various photographs of the beautiful space, but the one above of a particular sculpture caught our eye.

This sculpture has inspired a few sculptures we have in the gardens of the Hospice, created by patients over a few years during our craft groups, led by Activities Co-ordinator Julie Annis.

The next couple of sessions were spent in the Pottery Studio at Pepenbury.  We all made coil pots to be strung together in a larger sculpture, this technique was very tactile and a little messy!  All patients enjoyed the sessions, whether for the therapeutic benefits of handling the clay or for the peer support and social interaction.

Liz Blande, the Pottery Instructor at Pepenbury told us,

‘Our pottery sessions allow people of all abilities to enjoy the many therapeutic aspects of ceramics: helping motor skills, dexterity and creativity. We use basic hand building and decorative techniques including coiling, slab building and press moulding to produce functional vessels and sculptural forms which can be found in our shop. We have two potters' wheels, one of which is wheelchair friendly. The class is geared to the ability of each individual. Some people attend regularly and like to solely pound the clay for their own benefit.’

Some of the pottery produced at Pepenbury

As of the time of writing this blog I’m afraid the pots were in the kiln!  So you will have to wait and see what they look like…..