Jim will guide you through the forming of your own labyrinth ball, with materials and tools provided. The air drying clay can set solid within a few days of the workshop.

Hand-Held Journeys’ transpose the classical labyrinth form around a sphere. This allows the labyrinth’s metaphors for life’s journeys and pilgrimage, to be placed within the palm of your hand.

Artist Jim Buchanan works particularly with the classical labyrinth forms, which date back some 5,000 years. Originally created as carved symbols, later finding use during the early Middle Ages as walk through patterns, laid into cathedral floors or cut turf village greens.

Jim’s primary interest as an artist is exploring the relationship between the cyclical rhythms found in Nature, with that of human movement, either by walking, haptic or visual senses. The addition of an oculus through the sphere links the ‘start’ and ‘goal’ of the labyrinth pattern, and offers potentially continuous momentum - the ‘eternal’. The cadence of moving through the labyrinth can stimulate emotional changes within the walker, and this understanding of ‘how we move can effect how we feel’ underpins Jim’s new work in healthcare.

Carving clay reveals internal sculptural forms, and adding back material allows us to build new pathways and labyrinthine walls. As the clay is from the earth, it represents the planet and our bodies. The oculus then allows us to see inside to contemplate the internal and the eternal.

Book tickets here: https://www.ticketsource.co.uk/catstrand/hand-held-journeys-a-workshop-with-jim-bucchanan/e-jzdogz