Tramore Teen Clay Club: A Hangout Space for Teenagers to Find Calm Through Pottery
Pottery pieces made by teen and kid homeschoolers at a workshop with Tramore Pottery's Patricia Conesa. My Own Teen Pottery Story Once a week, between the ages of thirteen and sixteen, I’d attend pottery classes after school. The lady who ran them had a wonderful low-demand attitude towards it: she would show us how to make things work, but otherwise give us a lot of freedom to carry out our own ideas . Memories of those afternoons sitting around a long table, making things with my hands and chatting with my friends still rank amongst my happiest nearly thirty years later. It wasn’t so much about the pottery (although I am still at it, so it clearly stuck!) but about having a safe space where the only expectation from us was to enjoy ourselves , with no deadlines, exams, or competition. And the wonderful feeling of flow and focus that you only get when you are making things with your hands, in the real world, in the 3D space. The Pressures Facing Irish Teens Today Much has ...