How Throwing helped me through lockdown

When we realised that this whole lockdown malarky was going to be here for a while and that it was going to be impossible to get ‘back to normal’ for the foreseeable, I found I had extra time on my hands. Granted that extra time came with lots of worry about how I would keep my business going when all the galleries and fairs were closed, but I’m a glass-half-full kind of girl and I saw the time as a bit of a gift.

I have always enjoyed throwing but in recent years have only been using the wheel to throw my ‘teardrop’ components for my sculptures. During this pandemic year, I felt a big urge to return to the wheel. It’s a meditative process that requires you to be fully present or else you’re likely to lose the piece, so it was the perfect way to still my thoughts and anxieties of what was happening in the world around me.

I saw it as an opportunity to refresh and improve my skills on the wheel as well as a chance to explore and develop new ideas with the freedom of a different technique and the newly gained time. If you want to know more about the project ideas and see some of the very early rough results then you can read about it in the blog I wrote last summer ‘What happened in Lockdown’ - I’ll put a link to it at the bottom.

This new project and solid amounts of time at the wheel refreshed my energy. It was like connecting with an old friend. The rhythm of the wheel and some creative freedom became a bit of a therapy.

Of course, I continued to make my vases and sculptures as in fact, online sales and shows were proving to be quite successful (big relief) but my extra time at the wheel really helped reduce my anxieties about all the uncertainties. Everyone was talking about ‘Me time’ and looking back now - this was mine. Just allowing myself to go with the flow creatively has made me realise how much pressure I put on myself to ‘come up with something’ in my now normal approach. Pressure doesn’t work well for me, I see that now. You can’t just force great ideas or great work.

It was important for me to keep making during this time, and luckily my studio is in the garden so I could, but I also think it helped that the project felt different to my normal making. I have found that many ideas which have been rolling around my brain for possibly years have had space to come out in some way.

I have often thought it would be wonderful to go on some kind of clay/arty holiday to absorb myself in a completely new way of working - like a Sandy Brown retreat or something at La Meridiana Ceramic School in Tuscany. Obviously, my ‘let’s have some fun on the wheel’ project is not the same by any stretch of the imagination as one of those trips would be but, I did what i could in my own little way to take advantage of the additional time and it helped.

It’s no secret that being creative is good for mental health, along with exercise and meditation. For those, like me, who can’t sit still and meditate for more than a minute - l recommend immersing yourself in a new creative endeavour. Watching Grayson Perry’s Art Club on Channel 4 I see that many people have turned or returned to art, finding new inspiration and a love for creating. I hope people continue to make time for making art as we slowly make our way out of lockdown. I am still enjoying days at the wheel, working out designs and honing techniques. What I thought initially was just going to be a time to play with clay like I did in the early days before my degree, has turned out to be quite productive. It has felt like a bit of a creative holiday but with results that I am pleased with and excited about.

I am finalising the vessels I’ve been working on and hope to launch them as a new range soon. They have quite a different vibe to the Single Scroll Vases. Sign up to my email list (at bottom of page) to be the first to see them when they launch.

Read my blog post about the lockdown project as it was happening last summer - What happened in lockdown.

If you are intrigued about the sculptures I make and to see the thrown teardrops, I have a separate site for them - www.dianegriffin.co.uk