Sian Hughes’ workshops on the Stroke Rehabilitation and Trauma wards at Broadgreen Hospital aimed to explore the interests and experiences of the participants through working with porcelain paper clay to create small fired pieces, decorated with impressed designs and blue underglaze. During her residency she worked with residents on the ward as well as nurses (including student nurses), physiotherapists and occupational therapists.
Sian worked with participants to roll out the porcelain clay thin enough to reveal its transparent qualities. Patients enjoyed making decisions about which plants, leaves, dried herbs & spices, screws, nuts, bolts and cogs to use to press into the damp clay and how to arrange them. Some individuals added soft underglaze colours with a paintbrush whilst others chose to leave natural colour. Even those patients who had limited movement or arts activity experience enjoyed the process and seeing the results they achieved, and quickly built confidence.
Sian incorporated text onto some of the pieces, encouraging patients to express their feelings, personalise their work, or give words of encouragement to another patient. This was a talking point and allowed patients to reference their own lives or family outside the ward.
“I think you can learn different things everyday… I never thought I’d be doing this at this age.”
– Participant
“My family won’t believe it when I get home that I’ve made all this – I’m not artistic at all.”
– Participant
“Lovely to see people so engaged and focused on something not just to improve physical… see another side of them doing this.”
– Ward staff member, Broadgreen Hospital
“It keeps people open & engaged. Its like mindfulness.”
– Ward staff member, Broadgreen Hospital
Sian created a back-lit framed work, using paper-think porcelain tiles created with participants during her residency. The artwork was installed at Broadgreen Hospital in March 2018.
‘Botanical Impressions’ by Sian Hughes (2017)
“The idea for the artwork came directly from working with the participants. Their exploration of my material – porcelain – spurred me on to bringing in new ways each session for them to create different outcomes from the impressed porcelain paper clay. The effect of shining light behind the fired porcelain pieces gave me the idea for creating a bank of 35 porcelain studies inspired by Victorian botanical magic lantern slides. It was an exciting symbolic project.”
– Sian Hughes