Pottering with dragons frees Helena

Helena Russell’s whimsical dragons will come out of their dens for the Crafts Potters sale at Easter and she has made every one of them by using just one hand.

Working with clay and creating her mythical, quirky creatures enables Helena to feel “free” and calms her “muddled” brain so she can cope with the daily challenges of epilepsy and a stroke she had about 30 years ago.

Helena was a 30-year-old mother with a four-year-old daughter when she had an operation for epilepsy and suffered a stroke during the operation.

Today, she still has uncontrollable epilepsy that causes seizures, and because of the stroke, she also has limited movement down the right side of her body and struggles with speech.

Four support people take turns to be by her side during the day and help her husband Mark assist her in tasks, or be there when she has a seizure.

But despite her challenges, she still manages to create a pottery dragon in a couple of sessions at Crafts Potters in Ranzau, using just her left hand to mould the clay into shape, add eyes, ears and horns if desired, to create her creatures.

Though it’s mostly dragons right now, she has created plant holders in the shape of wild animal feet, large boots for plants, and recently, old tractors.

The latter started with a design of an old Massey Ferguson in memory of her father’s tractor when she grew up on a North Otago farm.

Each work of art begins around some scrunched-up newspaper, with her support person, Louise Francis, waiting in anticipation for the final result.

“Everyone here knows Helena and like to see what she is going to do. “If she is making something, she can’t tell me and I have no idea what it is going to be, so I just watch it evolve. It’s exciting to see what comes out of her mind because she is very creative.”

One of the kiln team at Craft Potters, Marion Bansgrove, says the group would like to see more people with disabilities use the facilities and is fundraising for a refurbishment of the toilets to make them wheelchair accessible.

“We’d like to bring more people with challenges into pottery because it’s something they can do and get pleasure from,” she says.

Then, courses could be held for people with disabilities, with the help of volunteers from Craft Potters which she says would help keep costs down.

The annual Easter pottery sale begins on Friday evening, 18 April, and continues through to Sunday. It’s an opportunity for potters to show and sell their work but is also a fundraiser for the non-profit organisation so it can do things such as create wheelchair-accessible toilets.

Craft Potters Easter Pottery Sale, Friday 18 - Sunday 20 April, 202 Ranzau Rd.