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pottery as art therapy

I have a teenage boy neighbor who has a tumor on his spinal cord. He is home a few weeks from his second surgery. He has a lot of pain, and I have offered to go over with clay to see if some clay therapy will help him with his pain management. My question is because I am not a teacher, what would you, who teach children, say would be a good starting point? I have an extruder, and a slab roller so I can take prepared clay to him. Any suggestions? I think coil building would not require a lot of skills, and I have even thought about just giving him a lump of clay and let him make a small sculpture. There are many possibilities. Thanks in advance for any ideas. Martha

Reply to
Marmaj40
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Start with pinch pots. He can do that in his lap with the least strain on his back I would have thought.

Reply to
annemarie

I like your idea of not making his beginnings too complicated. Even slab building does take a lot out of you physically as you need to move around the object a bit to get it all together. If you have a dias/wheel on which to place the sculpture, so that it moves around instead of him doing so, I bet that would help.

Personally, just the feel of the clay and the ability to mould it into any shape I like is wonderful. Even if there is no actual result in the first couple of tries - just the distraction of concentrating on the clay instead of the pain may be helpful.

Wishing you the best of luck and him a good recovery!

Marianne

Reply to
Bubbles

If you make a slab for him, your neighbor can wrap it around a plastic 1/2 gallon square container (ice tea, etc). The trick is to cut a slit lenghtwise in the container ahead of time and tape it from the inside and to cover the container with plastic. Put a slab on the bottom and then around it. After it dries for awhile you can take off the tape and then collapse the container and remove the plastic.

Reply to
Lischneid

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