[VIDEO] Mas & Miek | Why are Ceramic Classes so Good for You?

By // Shannon Edwards for Place New Farm

Remember how it felt to play with clay as a child? The feeling of the soft, squishy material between your fingers?

Now we’re a little more grown up, Mas & Miek in Newstead is a place where you can get your hands dirty and turn that raw, earthy material into beautiful ceramics.

Run by the mother-daughter duo of Miek and Charlie De Deyre, the pair have taken their love for ceramics and created their dream space in an old studio warehouse.

Miek has been making ceramics ever since her husband bought her a pottery wheel 15 years ago!

“We always joke that since dad gave mum that wheel he’d created a monster and I was like a baby monster following in mum’s footsteps. We’re pottery mad,” says Charlie.

Promoting an open learning structure, welcoming all from ceramic novices to professionals, Mas & Miek offers beginner classes, master classes and studio sessions.

Or, you can browse the shop and kick-back on the brown leather lounges to the sweet sounds of Bon Iver.

We met with Charlie where she talked us through how pottery classes can help us mentally and physically.

How does Mas and Miek work?

Our studio is a little different. We have a completely “open learning structure” meaning our students can build their own timetable around classes that suit them.

Unlike most ceramic studios that run by a set curriculum, we have classes all throughout the week at different times of the day.

You can buy one class, four classes or a 10 pack and you can choose whichever sessions best suit your timetable.

Everyone has different schedules and different needs so we make sure we cater to suit everyone.

We’re very easy going with it and prefer that open and relaxed structure.

Why is pottery-making good for the soul?

Back when it all begun, we found a whole heap of studies on how the art of ceramic making is good for the soul. One of these in particular was a story written in the New York Times called ‘Soul Craft.’

There are studies that link throwing on the pottery wheel with reducing depression in some people.

There’s scientific evidence into how the spinning of the wheel and the centrifugal force, working with your hands and the satisfaction of creating something can be really good for us, mentally and physically.