‘Making things with clay cheered people up and gave them inspiration’
When artist and designer Debbie Philpott was made redundant in 2019, she decided to transform her large garden shed, affectionately known as Barnabee (pictured right), into an art room to offer lessons in pottery and crafts. When the pandemic sent the UK into lockdown back in March 2020, Debbie, from Temple Ewell, Kent, hit on the idea of offering local people a chance to get crafty as a way of cheering them up and giving them inspiration. She asked the owner of Temple Ewell Village Store if she could leave clay at the shop for people to take home and try their hand at modelling while they were stuck indoors. Store owner Donna Febrer was happy to help and through the shop, word-of-mouth and Facebook, Debbie found there was a lot of demand to get creative.
Debbie remembers: ‘The clay became particularly popular with parents who were home-schooling children, as well as people with time on their hands who said they found this new hobby really therapeutic.’
The model makers then dropped their creations back to the store for Debbie to fire in her kiln. ‘All the work was put in the village store window ready for me to collect,’ she says. ‘It was quite a talking point! It was also a big responsibility to get the pieces back home in one piece – this was precious cargo! My kiln is massive and needs its own power supply, so it was good to have plenty of pieces to fire in one go to make it worthwhile. Once the models were fired, I loaded them carefully in boxes and drove them back to the store so my virtual artists could collect them and take them home to paint or varnish. Although I didn’t get to meet the modellers in person, I loved picking up their work to see what they had made.
‘I received lots of lovely comments from people too. One villager, Annabel Moat, wrote and said: “Like most families in lockdown, we were running out of meaningful activities at home. Our children, aged five, eight and 11, spent a therapeutic afternoon creating different pieces and experimenting with the clay. They were so happy to receive their fired creations back and spent another afternoon painting them. Your collaboration with our local shop is really appreciated”.’
Donna at the village store says: ‘I took over the shop three years ago and wanted to be involved in the community, so this venture was lovely during lockdown.’
Debbie hopes to meet many of the modellers properly as restrictions ease:
‘I’m going to start classes in small groups. When the weather’s good, we can sit outside. We’ve built a terrace in the
garden, which overlooks the River Dour and the ducks fly in and out all the time. Having trained and worked in design all my life, I love crafts – from block printing to mosaics, pottery to green woodwork. My husband Rob and I also keep bees. Rob runs courses on beekeeping, which is how I came to acquire my kiln. One of his beekeeping contacts had one in his shed that he never used and offered it to me for £50! We also acquired a woodburning stove from another friend for £100.’
Lockdown gave the pair time to upgrade Barnabee’s interior. Old apple boxes had been serving as shelving, but were a bit rough and ready, so they were replaced with nice new wooden ones. Debbie and Rob are also keen gardeners and love wildlife, which explains Barnabee’s living roof. ‘We live near a nature reserve,’ says Debbie, ‘so on our walks, we collected lots of seeds and have incorporated scabious, thyme, marjoram and sedum because they flourish naturally in thin soil and attract wildlife.’ They have also just planted a small orchard alongside with old varieties of apples.
‘We’re looking forward to the time when I can continue craft sessions and Rob can get back to beekeeping classes,’ says Debbie, as she misses seeing people face-to-face.
‘When the weather’s nice,’ she says, ‘we can sit outside with a cup of tea and enjoy the company, and in the winter I’ll get the woodburner on so it’s nice and toasty.’
Find out more at kentcrafthive.net