How working with clay helped Sheffield ceramacist Jenny Chan beat depression

Then in her mid-50s, the stay-at-home mum found clay “by accident” and started to learn more watching You Tube videos.

Unable to sleep or eat much, and feeling isolated, she found working with clay gave her solace.

“I found peace with clay,” she said. “I was working with clay day and night and putting all my focus into it.

“It was a great way of releasing my anxiety and I got better and better.

“Clay helped me pick up confidence as a person. I suddenly believed in myself again. I am not useless, I can make pretty things which people find beauty in.”

Now 59, she has a studio at Yorkshire Artspace, Exchange Place Studios, in Sheffield.

“Each year the Starter Studio programme take on three ceramacists and helps them start a career with subsidised studio space, by mentoring and some online courses,” she said.

“I am very lucky to get onto the programme. I am very grateful to the UK - if you prove that you work hard you get the opportunities.”

During lockdown she worked at home on figures of frontline healthcare workers using a plasticine which could be hardened off in an oven and has only just got back her studio.

She thinks some of the skill she has with her hands has come from years with fixing things at home. “Coming from Asia we don’t throw things away - we fix them.”

Having lived through the Sars epidemic in 2003,she was well aware of how lethal coronaviruses are, and is shocked by the lack of clear guidelines given out by the government.

“I see the UK government not putting a strict enforcement policy, unlike Asian countries. I worry a lot about front-line workers here.”

Visit jennychanartworks.com