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From midwife to ceramicist – my journey as a Cardiff Met mature student

Clare working on the wheel
Clare working on the wheel

At seventeen, I had to choose between training as a nurse, or going to university to study art. I made the decision to become a nurse, and later a midwife, and I enjoyed my career for 37 years.

But the idea of studying art always remained in the back of my mind.

My love of ceramics originated as a teenager at the school pottery club, followed by various evening classes. Eventually this culminated in me taking early retirement from the NHS in 2018 to take a place on the BA (Hons) Ceramics course at Cardiff Met.

I chose to study at Cardiff School of Art and Design because of the wonderful facilities and attributes of the ceramics course, combined with the fact that I lived within a commutable distance.

When I started my degree, I knew it would present many challenges – after all that’s what learning and creativity is all about.

My concerns were mostly related to getting to grips with the academic aspects of a degree, but I found the steady building blocks of the course allowed my confidence and understanding of what was required to develop.

Throughout the course there were varied modules and opportunities for development, and I was soon able to create submissions I wouldn’t even have known how to begin before joining the course.

Some highlights included a short residency in France in first year, and a field trip to Rajasthan just prior to the COVID-19 pandemic in the second year.

In my final year I chose the option to create a ‘Technical Report’ for my dissertation. This offered me great scope for researching a topic I was really interested in – brick clays. After massive amounts of testing, I created a piece of work which reflected my appreciation of this family of clay’s heritage and contemporary relevance.

Producing this piece of work was a massive milestone for me. I was able to use the knowledge I gained from it in creating in my final pieces of work for my Artist Book, Video, and online Degree Show.

Adjusting to returning to education was challenging. I had to realign the way I thought of myself – as a ceramicist, and not a midwife. It took time, and I had to acknowledge the end of a career I loved as a part of that journey.

Step-by-step over the three years I began to understand how to blend the many facets within me, including my life experience and the personal values intrinsic to me, and reflect these contexts and concepts within my work.

I cannot describe the joy this gave me – at the beginning of my degree grasping it seemed almost out of my reach, yet this was what I had come to university for.

So, was the rollercoaster ride of hard work, heartache, being stretched to, and at times beyond my limit worth it? A resounding ‘yes’. Completing my degree, something I thought would never happen, feels like a beginning not an end.

See more of Clare’s work in her final project video and artist’s book.