Take a look into a pottery class infested with 5-year-olds in the slideshow below, their mission was to make a Volkswagen beetle out of a piece of clay. Then read up on what Jane James, a down to earth woman who wears sandals and long skirts with suns on it, has to say about being an artist and a healer.

One of Jane's students, five-year-old Mika, is undoubtedly adorable wearing an alice band that has purple fluff on it. It jiggles side to side as she gets comfortable on her stool. Then there is Kaiah who refuses to start the class until she finishes drawing a fairy in her sketchbook. This seems cute, at first, until she talks over the other children and repeatedly squeals "Excuse me, excuse me".  She is an only child.

Jane only sees the goodness.

“They are so enthusiastic,” she said. “I enjoy their complete honesty and their joy.”

Every Tuesday afternoon she teaches pottery class to children in her ceramics studio, an old garage tucked away in her back garden. It has peeling white walls, a flaking red roof and a bright turquoise door which is guarded by her old labrador.

Adults also enjoy the feel of the smooth and sticky clay between their fingers in Jane's night class.

It is “for people that work full time, they want to do something creative and relaxing.”

Why do people keep coming back for more?

“Working with one’s hands is very therapeutic. Our minds are so active, working hands grounds them, takes us out of our heads,” said James

Jane is also an alternative therapist. Her other business Hands-on-Harmony, has Astrology consultations, reflexology, reiki and massage.

“For me, the need to create and to heal is an urge that spreads from a similar impulse. It is the desire for self-knowledge and to bring wholeness to people.”

In between the teaching and therapy Jane squeezes in time to make her own ceramic work, which is difficult because she is a single mother who brings food to the table to her two children.

When the class is over the children tidy up the counters they have worked on. Kaiah proves she is a good girl, climbing with her gumboots on to the table to wash off the clay with a sponge. Jane looks on laughing.

If you don't have time to join a pottery class, you could always find your creativity and relive your childhood through other means: playing in the mud, building sand castles or you could check out one of my favourite motivations on 'How to be an artist' by SARK.