“In early 2020 I remember seeing a news report from Wuhan with video showing once crowded streets, near empty, and not being able to comprehend the enormity of it all. “In early 2020 I remember seeing a news report from Wuhan with video showing once crowded streets, near empty, and not being able to comprehend the enormity of it all. It was January and for once hubby and I had decided not to travel to the UK to see my relatives, we were instead considering taking the motorbike to Sicily for a quick tour in a month or so and had a holiday to Cyprus booked in June, “life is what happens when you are making plans” comes to mind.
As a full time self employed ceramics designer, business was going well at this time. I’d spent five years finding my routine and my creative voice. My long weeks were spent teaching, designing and creating work for restaurants and chefs, commission work for private clients and ready to own pieces. It was all very buzzy, high energy, people filled hours.
March 12th 2020 was a significant day for me. I cancelled all of my classes as numbers of Covid cases were increasing locally and I couldn’t bear the thought of the virus being passed on through my studio and being part of the problem. It turned out to be a wise move as three weeks later, someone I would normally have contact with during teaching did test positive.
My diary at this time has comments like ‘slow day watching the news’, ‘very distracted day, very strange times’ and an entry from 2nd April which I now find amusing ‘no idea what the f**k is happening, may as well eat my body weight in cheese – if I could find that much cheese’. Also noted is ‘online Zumba class’, ‘one hour home gym’ and ‘David working from home’ as I’m reminded that from one routine and almost a feeling of loss, a new routine was taking shape. As a normally happy, optimistic creature I’ve realised in retrospect that when curve balls are thrown my way I won’t settle until I find my normal cheerful state of mind again, this will mean adapting (usually with a large amount of internal kicking and screaming) and listening to the very quiet voice of my instinct.
As restaurants closed I had just delivered a large commission to one of my very loyal clients, was half way through another large commission which I continued with, not knowing when the items would be needed or if their business would survive, and a third very small commission which to this day has never been collected. This was obviously a sector that would be sadly hit hard and even when reopened, they were, and still are, working at a fraction of their full capacity. My business in response would need to alter.
In late March, early April one of my very dear clients contacted me. As a business owner in the tourism industry and someone that would normally be working ridiculous hours and bouncing around from country to country, she found herself grounded. She had cleaned and cleared her house, as most people had at this stage, and was now considering her garden. She came to me with an order for numerous plant pots, this was very significant as to what would be happening next to many of us.
With holidays, venues and organised activities all cancelled and the highlight of a week being a delivery van turning up with fresh veg, people started re examining the space around them and began to embellish the places that they were now spending the majority of time living and working in; their homes. Once my client’s plant pots were ready and images posted on social media, it started a string of enquiries. It wasn’t just about the pots, I feel far more interest was being taken in plants and bringing greenery and nature inside the home. As orders increased online, not only of plant pots but other comfort items like mugs and teapots, I temporarily started a free delivery service, jumping on the motorbike on a Sunday morning with my ever supportive husband, David, to run around Malta. This wasn’t work, this was valuable time spent together with purpose and small interactions with people who were visibly delighted, through masked faces, to receive their ceramic objects. And as this is a pandemic with many situations and emotions being mirrored globally, orders from abroad were also received, with work travelling to Australia, Israel, America, France, UK, Canada and Luxembourg.
Probably the toughest decision I made during this period was to give up teaching in December 2020; Covid restrictions had given me thinking time. My business had organically morphed into what it was pre Covid with commission work and opportunities giving me a direction, this was the first time I made a choice not prompted by other people’s needs, to angle the path I would take in future. Putting aside the emotional connection I had with teachers, organisers and students, I felt the craving for more space to design and develop ideas and six months on, I know it was the right choice.
So adapt I did, as did so many other people. I threw out old furniture, completely redecorated the studio myself on a budget, bought plants and contrary to my reputation most are still alive. I suffered anxiety and found a way of dealing with that by buying a second hand kayak and exploring the coast of our beautiful islands. I have found a long lasting effect from taking pleasure from simple things.
My work can be seen at instagram.com/suemifsudceramics Email [email protected]
This series is conceived and edited by Marie Benoît who will be contributing her own Diary occasionally. [email protected]