Inspire: Angela Trzaska Raw Clay Spriggan Making Workshop

Are you a creative practitioner working in the arts, health and wellbeing space in Cornwall? Would you like an opportunity to discuss your experiences with others and benefit from peer support? Arts Well, thanks to funding from Cornwall Council, is hosting a series of free workshops where creative practitioners can have time to reflect and renourish themselves whilst also enjoying a creative workshop.

In 2022 we asked creative practitioners what development and support needs they had and overwhelmingly they said they wanted a space to talk with others, to share successes and challenges, and to discuss issues relating to creative health practice. They also spoke about having the opportunity to experience a creative workshop for themselves. This programme has been developed in response to that.

Angela Trzaska is a ceramicist living and working in Cornwall. She makes and exhibits her own work and also hasexperienceof running creative community engagement programmes."My practice is focused on the human figure, marine plants and micro organisms, bought together in a surreal way to reflect our present times. Beach combing finds are a source of inspiration as are the Cornish myths about sea peoples and other Celtic fairy tales. At the end of the Anthropocene normal rules no longer apply, so nothing is quite as it used to be.''

You can see more of Angie's work here.

Raw Clay Spriggan Making Workshop.

During the workshop Angela will guide us through making clay Spriggans during the session. Spriggans are mythological Cornish creatures that may be the souls of great giants. Stories associate them with ancient monuments and ruins which they protect from looters and damage. They maybe small but when challenged they can suddenly increase in size and strength and become very powerful. In this workshop the small spriggans heads that we make from clay become enlarged by adding twigs and plant materials. I imagine the spriggan drawing everything towards itself to increase its mass and power in order to fend off environmental threats.

There will be time for informal discussion about our practice as creative health professionals and we will end with a vegetarian lunch.

The session is free to creative health practitioners working in Cornwall and places are limited. There will be a charge made for anyone who does not attend if they do not let us know ahead of the session in order to ensure that the maximum number of practitoners can benefit.