You know that truly marvellous feeling of being blissfully unaware of how you look, usually only available in the safety of your own home? You can experience similar liberation at Thuli Wolf’s blindfolded clay sculpting workshops, where participants make pottery without being able to actually see what they’re creating.
Without the ability to look left and right to compare, potters can fully immerse themselves in their own work, free from external influences and distractions. Wolf, a trained physician and art therapist, has been offering workshops since 2022, after “painting herself out of a crisis” and experiencing first-hand how much psychological and physical well-being influence each other. Working with clay is said to be able to induce meditative states, releasing happiness hormones and promoting relaxation, but why do it blind?
By taking away their ability to see, participants are made fully dependent on their hands to guide them through the process, eliminating the temptation to judge and criticise their own work at any point. Towards the end of the workshop, participants are invited to talk about their blind experience and thoughts while sculpting. To take part, you don’t need to have previous experience or materials, just rock up in something that can get dirty.
- Falckensteinstr. 46, Kreuzberg. €60. Upcoming workshops on Nov 24 and Dec 13, 18-20:30. Sign up on thuliwolf.com.
