Dealing with Covid Isolation | Carla Sealey | Episode 689

Carla Sealey | Episode 689

Carla Sealey founded Naked Clay Ceramics which is a collection of handmade, minimal style ceramics in porcelain and black stoneware. Inspired by the colours and textures of the earth, the feel of natural, unglazed clay allows a tactile connection, bringing an opportunity to pause and savour a quiet moment in the hustle of life.

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How has the isolation impacted you?

I think like a lot of potters I am actually quite happy with my own company. But I think with Covid came the realization that I did actually miss that whole thing of the adventure of going places and going to events, of going to the different towns with a purpose, to go to an event, and then meeting people, and meeting the same people but different events. So you have a different kind of office when you are a maker. Your office is somewhere different and your colleagues you don’t see very often, but you do want to see them and I have definitely missed that. I didn’t realize how much I would miss it but I have missed it and that’s been the incentive to do things like the pitchectir (sp unkown) as they call it. And then a few makers put on their own little Zoom group meetings about specific subjects.

How has social media helped to lessen the ache of isolation?

It’s provide a kind of little forum. I mean, that was booked through a specific platform and it was basically just a Zoom chat with four or five people. Though three people who showed their work, talked about their work, and suddenly you are in that comfortable position where you are hearing from people and talking to people who are doing something that you are doing and swapping anecdotes and swapping techniques. So I think it’s been pretty crucial through things like live Zoom chats and Instagram, I don’t underestimate Instagram, it’s a place again, where you can meet people like yourself. Okay, it’s only comments and DMs but you are reaching out to other people and building relationship there.

Do you have a bubble of friends that you are able to connect with?

I have a bubble, if you want to call it that, on Instagram. Because that’s the thing about being a maker, I don’t know anybody else in my immediate social circle, in my friendship circle, in my family, there is no one else who makes for a living. Everyone else has got sensible jobs. (laughter) Or they are retiring. So again, social media has been really useful for that and that’s the one place that you can connect with people like yourself because you don’t find other makers very often in your circle.

Does it help to take a break from the news?

I don’t listen to the news.

You’ve taken a life-long break!

I have taken a life-long break. I don’t do newspapers, I don’t do the news.

Do you ever have to have a reset for your mind and think , My mindset needs to be different?

Sometimes I have to catch myself and not take things too seriously, try and get some perspective. I used to spend a lot of time in Wales, we have a static which I think you call a trailer, in Wales, which is about 300 miles away. And I would go up there. There is no television, no clocks, no radio, so it’s walking, cooking, and reading…and walking. And that was a great re-set, I call that screwing my head back on. No work. No thoughts about work, not thoughts about what I am creating, what plans I’ve got. Just literally, walking, reading, and cooking. And that sued to be my re-set button. Which because of Covid that also has gone the by and by. So now I am doing exercises at home, I am running more. You need to find something that stops that constant thought process that goes on in your head when you are a maker.