Pottery and Arthritis: Can you still make pottery on the wheel?
Making pottery can actually be really good for arthritis. As the saying goes, use it or lose it. The fact is if you’re not moving your arthritic joints, and training the muscles around them, they will deteriorate faster. The Arthritis Foundation says it’s a “myth that activity will cause more pain and joint damage”, and that activity is actually “the best arthritis pain reliever in your toolbox”.
Note that I’m not a medical professional, and because the approach depends on the type and severity of arthritis, you should always involve your care providers in the management of your symptoms. I however was training to be a Neuropsychologist before changing career to pottery, which offers an interesting insight and psychological perspective.
Is Arthritis a Barrier to Learning Pottery?
In psychology there’s a phenomenon known as illness behaviours. This is where someone assumes the role of a sick individual and reduces their activity, and rests. While short-term rest offers pain relief and initial inflammation reduction, in the long-term it is activity that reduces inflammation in chronic conditions such as arthritis.
Teaching over 2500 people to throw a pot on the wheel, I’ve found people with arthritis often have a barrier to learning pottery, but that it is their mind set. After failing to put their hands into the correct position initially, I’ve had many people tell me they can’t do it because they have arthritis. What I think happens is that their expectation of not being able to do it prevents them from seeing it through and trying their best. Each occasion I’ve reassured them they can take their time, and that I believe they can get their hands into the right position, but not to do it if it’s too painful. Shortly after, they do get their hands into the right position and successfully throw a pot!
The Research
It is exercise, socialising and engaging in novel activities, such as pottery, that promote good physical, cognitive and mental health. The research shows:
- Being active with arthritis improves inflammation and reduces recovery time (Luo et al 2024; Ye et al, 2022);
- Making ceramic art improves hand grip, pinching power (Khedekar et al 2017) and hand-dexterity (Bae & Kim 2018),
- The therapeutic benefits of pottery reduces stress, and improves mood and quality of life (Ye et al 2022; Bae & Kim 2018).
Exercise, socialising and engaging in novel activities are not separate from each other either. They’re all related, which is why throwing on the pottery wheel gives you a fantastic, creative and fun, low-impact activity, that targets them all:
- Engaging in fun and creative activities, like pottery, help direct focus away from pain, which reduces stress and depression.
- Reducing stress can improve physical health, promoting better immune responses, and therefore physical recovery.
- Then of course the physical effects of moving your body, as strengthens the muscles around your joints, increases bone strength, lubricates the joints, increases blood flow to your joints, reduces inflammation, maintains joint flexibility, improves balance and coordination reducing the chances of falls, all of which reduce inflammation and arthritis related stress.
Adaptations in Pottery with Arthritis
There are also adaptations for pottery making that a good tutor can give you if you have particular forms of arthritis.
- You can substitute your fingers for your thumbs on many moves, if pain in your thumbs is problematic.
- There are alternative techniques many throwing moves such as lifting clay walls.
- The wheels can be elevated or lowered to put less impact on your elbows, as these should generally be placed with your elbows at 90 degree angles.
- You can also slow the wheel down and therefore the force of the wheel will be less.
- Pulling handles for mugs can be strenuous on the wrist, but other methods of making handles include using a coiler or an extruder, which avoid force on the wrists.
- Then, after a number of attempts, if you find throwing on the wheel to be too painful, then there is the fantastic world of hand-building, which use a whole set of different movements with your hands, and don’t receive the force of the wheel.
Pottery Making is Good for Arthritis
In conclusion, making pottery can be a very positive way to manage your arthritis, as part of a larger activity regime. The social and engaging activity can reduce your stress and depression levels associated with your arthritis, which has beneficial effects to your physical health as well. Then the physical activity, using and developing your fine motor skills to create sculpture, throw pots on the wheel and express yourself decoratively, helps build up the muscles, strengthen the bones and reduce inflammation around your fingers, hands and arms.
Get booked into your local community pottery studio to try it out. If you’re near Manchester, then try our wheel throwing taster to see if it suits you, or book one of our longer pottery courses in Manchester.
References
Bae, Y. S., & Kim, D. H. (2018). The applied effectiveness of clay art therapy for patients with Parkinson’s disease. Journal of Evidence-Based Integrative Medicine, 23, 2515690X18765943. https://doi.org/10.1177/2515690X18765943
Luo, B., Xiang, D., Ji, X., Chen, X., Li, R., Zhang, S., Meng, Y., Nieman, D. C., & Chen, P. (2024). The anti-inflammatory effects of exercise on autoimmune diseases: A 20-year systematic review. Journal of Sport and Health Science, 13(3), 353-367. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jshs.2024.02.002
Ye, H., Weng, H., Xu, Y. et al. Effectiveness and safety of aerobic exercise for rheumatoid arthritis: a systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials. BMC Sports Sci Med Rehabil 14, 17 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1186/s13102-022-00408-2
Khedekar, Sayali & Shimpi, Apurv & Shyam, Ashok & Sancheti, Parag. (2017). Use of art as therapeutic intervention for enhancement of hand function in patients with rheumatoid arthritis: A pilot study. Indian Journal of Rheumatology. 12. 10.4103/0973-3698.199130.