welcome
to my happy place and my home of CreativePlay.
the soul bearers
Whatever it is, being distracted with clay has been an incredible place for me to creatively play when I'm taking myself far too seriously. There is something so nurturing when we grant ourselves permission to play regardless of the outcome... I'm never quite sure how they will turn out but that's part of our journey together. Each one is quite intuitive and they seems to be deeply soulful. They carry their own unique soulful story, one I want to hear and one I want to tell.
They have captivated my heart, soul and mind.
Which led me to find my beautiful love for this medium.
Clay is part of my creative regime and new ideas and pieces are swirling around my head and heart constantly. They come to me in my sleep and while I’m awake and also while I’m working with the clay. I do believe the secret is to find oneself claying… I mean playing.
It’s where serious work is born from.
Sometimes in playing, new ideas are born and some land squarely in the bin but I’m glad to say not too many. Each new one good or bad, offers me new lessons on love and patience, digging deeper and has me constantly seeking. I am always so delighted by the next precious soul to find it’s way onto my desk, into my life and deeply into my soul too and they are always welcome.
- Jeanne-Marie 10th September 2021
Workshops
Please keep a look out on my workshop page as I will be updating that constantly on the go as new work presents itself.
- ClayPlay in 2021/2020 -
I ended 2020 playing with clay and I started 2021 playing with clay…
Living through 2020 and starting 2021 whilst adapting to life all things pandemic… playing with clay has felt like medicine for my weary soul. I think it’s important to do something that is soothing and rather therapeutic when you need other things to distract you from the harshness of life and let’s be honest, 2020 was harsh.
So February 2021 brought about #FebruaryFacesinClay - 29Faces in beautiful PaperClay and what a better way to start the year than joyfully playing with clay and together in community. I love daily projects and this one was no exception. It was brilliant and it was filled with joy from those who participated and watched along. The various faces were quirky, fun and most entertaining.
The other thing I have found with daily projects, that the repetitive work breathes new life in ones creativity and helps you find new ideas and creative discoveries along the way and that always feel a little like hope to me. It also takes you beautifully into flow-state.
For me this beautiful project of 30 odd faces lead me on to a new body of works and a new collection. Six faces stayed just faces and some became beautiful hanging pendants and others because full SoulBearers.
It was a beautiful way to work… having a starting point of a beautiful face and building that on in different stages to full little SoulBearers, has changed the way I work with my pieces.
ComeClaywithMe
This workshop includes 5 lessons with some bonus material in each section. Thank you for taking another journey with me with and my precious clay.
All in all you will walk away with new Clay SoulBearers and some new ideas and ways of working to add to your collection.
my clay on INSTAGRAM
Finishing works…
Although I started this project in 2017, finally finished her in 2021. I can’t tell you why some pieces take me so long to get through. Sometimes they can overwhelm me, and doing tiny buildings like this always takes so much time. So I tend to avoid them and she was so big at the time. I did however, cut her down to size and that made a huge difference to me finally finding my way to finishing her story. I really love her to bits. I am happy to say she she found her forever home and landed safely.
Sending these darlings across their world is always so special to me.
Playing with clay in 2020 felt like I had breathed new life into my work and there was a definite shift for me. I worked differently with my Soulbearers. For one I was working smaller which felt really good. I hadn’t made too many clay pieces since my trip to the USA in 2017, bar one or two here and there and I made a few more in 2019 when I was in Italy but again mostly only finished during 2020…
Something had shifted and it was a shift I needed.
BlackBird 2020
She has BlackBirds on her back as I made her after I spent a week feeding the blackbirds while I was away at the coast and it was a deeply moving moment for me. I love her soulful face so much. She was one of my favorites from 2020.
Sanctuary for the Lost Souls
She was born in Italy when I was teaching in Orvieto with Ivy, in the little upper room in the Monastery. She’s so special. I love everything about her, the way she’s leaning, her face and her buildings and her friends.
clay tutorials
On my various walks on my beach and in my forest, I started finding these beautiful organic items in nature and I started collecting them. I wasn’t sure what I was going to do with them yet. I had some driftwood pieces lying on my desk for a couple of years. Through play I started adding clay to it and found it made a wonderful armature together will adding natural elements to my work. The more I started playing this way, the more I started adding other organic elements to my work, like shells, wood and stones.
This tiny one lead me to share with you my little tutorial class called LeanintoMe. Adding shells to my clay work lead me to share my little tutorial class called LaMadre
the Art of Making your own PaperClay
Homemade paperclay
There is something so beautifully organic being able to make your own clay piece completely from scratch. From paper to clay to figure. It’s something I think she should all try at least once in our life.
I tried and tested this simple recipe and build a beautiful soul.
