Ceramics as a digital detox process.

Written By Ambar S.

One of the many ways I digital detoxed during my days working behind a laptop, over 50 hours a week at times as a senior project manager and producer, was through ceramics. 

My friend Romina, who co-founded Studio Kransen in Stockholm, encouraged me to play with clay throwing and modelling. Modelling got me through the pandemic, helping me to be present in the process and out of my overthinking mind. 

Creating something out of a block of clay using my wet hands. Feeling the texture and material between my fingers, smelling the clay, noticing how I feel doing this and watch the process of modelling unfold has been very satisfying. Sometimes I have an idea, and sometimes the idea develops. Sometimes the results are great, sometimes the outcome doesn’t turn out well. Suddenly, I don’t have any sense of time anymore, which is liberating too. Then I’ll notice the quality of my breath. Do I hold my breath when sculpting, needing focus, like writing a bad announcement email? I then remember to be carried by the breath.

Although some of us feel comfort in reading research, I encourage everyone to try ceramics and experience it fully to help us feel connected with our body by using our hands. Our experiences with depression, anxiety and stress start with the disconnection of mind, body and feelings. I’ll write more about this as I am a counselling trainee applying Psychosynthesis models to client work. For further reading on the process of sculpting and our capacity to achieve agency, better memory and imagination, I’d like to refer you to an article Handmade Therapy: The Hedonic Impacts of Engaging in Pottery Making (O’Brien, C., Gallagher, S. & Malafouris, L., 2025) and how ceramics benefit individuals with mental health issuese such as depression, anxiety and stress as mentioned in The effects of crafts-based interventions on mental health and well-being: A systematic review (Bukhave, Creek, Linstad & Frandsen, 2025)

To explore why we are disconnected in the first place, I would like to invite you to Sculpt & Sounds on Saturday, March 28th and Sunday, March 29th, 2026, hosted by me and Studio Kransen in Stockholm, where we use sound healing, meditation and breathwork to tap into our creativity, expressed through clay. Romina will guide you through the modelling, and I will guide you through the process with sound healing and guided breathwork. You’re going home with tools for your daily life, on how to be more aware of how to experience sound and how to use your breath to take better care of yourself. If you are interested in Sculpt & Sounds in London or Amsterdam, drop me a note.

Book here

References

  • E.B. Bukhave, J. Creek, A.K. Linstad & T.F. Frandsen. The effects of crafts-based interventions on mental health and well-being: A systematic review. Australian Occupational Therapy Journal, 72(1), e70001. (2025) https://doi.org/10.1111/1440-1630.70001

Ambar S.
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