Perla Camacho Jimenez Offers Ceramics Classes for People With Rheumatic Conditions

[Perla Camacho Jimenez] Hi. How are you? 

[Perla Camacho Jimenez] We take pieces of clay -- 

[Charity Nebbe] After being diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis, ceramicist Perla Camacho Jimenez found healing through clay and connection. She is sharing that power of healing with others through her therapeutic ceramics class for people living with rheumatic conditions including arthritis, fibromyalgia and gout. 

[Perla Camacho Jimenez] The first thing that I thought is how can I make a community? How can I know more people with what I'm dealing with? 

[Perla Camacho Jimenez] It's a workshop for rheumatic patients working with clay. They are healing through clay. It's a very broad spectrum of people that are dealing with pain and stiffness, joint problems and through clay it's like a little workout for the hands. It helps a lot to get rid of the stiffness that happens with rheumatic conditions. The ability to do something in clay doesn't come too naturally at the beginning, especially if your hand is shaking or if you're having trouble squeezing the material. So, there are ways that they have found that work for themselves. 

[Rita Holm] When you work with clay, you need strength in your hands. It's dealing with arthritic situations and so my hands are arthritic. The movement, the creativity, it helps. 

[Rita Holm] Give him a real sneaky black eye.

[Kerri Mead] I immediately thought of my friend Pamela who I know has tendonitis in her thumbs and could no longer create through her hands. 

[Kerri Mead] And so I thought it would be a great opportunity to remind her of who she is and what she used to be able to do. 

[Pamela Bulmahn] I enjoy it a lot, just listening to the conversation around me and watching what people create. It's really fulfilling. 

[Kerri Mead] We came to the first class and Perla really gave us all a hand and helped give us exercises to how to warm up your hands and get them ready to do some work. And then the techniques that she teaches are easy on the hands. You don't have to have so much hand strength to be able to do the things that we're doing.

[Perla Camacho Jimenez] I can see an improvement in how confident they are about approaching the clay. 

[Perla Camacho Jimenez] It's something that can make them feel accomplished.