WHAT BECOMES POSSIBLE WITH HANDS AND EARTH

North Somerset, 28.07.25

At the end of July we held the third and final session in our series of pottery workshops collaborating with ceramicist Shanika Dedanu Yeomans at a Home Office hotel in North Somerset. We brought with us the glazed and fired tea cups made by participating residents in the preceding sessions, and set up on two tables in the sun outside.

On a portable stove, the hotel manager made chai with Indian tea sourced via London, local milk, cloves, cardamom, ginger, and cinnamon sent directly from Shanika’s family garden in Sri Lanka. While residents waited for the bus into central Bristol, where they connect with valuable services and resources, everyone enjoyed gathering around the table and maps, chatting and drinking tea.

A resident joining us for the first time delighted in seeing the lined-up cups. He asked how and when he could make his own. We talked about being back in September, and Shanika bringing her skills and experience of sourcing clay and creating glazes from local earth to make palm-sized cups, tiles and little creatures…

Words by Amy Wilson, Shanika Yeomans & Sarah Robinson.