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Paper short abstract:

During the pandemic potters in Britain participated in online spaces and communities to learn skills, share work, and meet others. Focusing on identity, belonging and social connectedness, I argue that their participation in online communities was integral to the wellbeing impact of pottery making.

Paper long abstract:

From the Arts and Crafts Movement in mid-nineteenth century Britain, through subsequent craft revivals up until today, craft has been positioned ideologically in opposition to mass production, modernity, and digital technologies. However, people increasingly learn, share, produce, and consume crafts through engagements online. This paper discusses the relationship between pottery making, eudemonic wellbeing, and social media in the context of my digital ethnographic research with British potters during the Covid-19 pandemic. When physical access to spaces such as studios was limited, these potters turned to social media sites such as Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube to learn new skills and connect with other potters from within their homes. This paper addresses the dissonance between how many of my participants felt that pottery offered them an escape from their phones, while simultaneously much of their enjoyment of pottery came from their participation in these online spaces. I attend specifically to identity, belonging, and social connectedness, discussing how participants constructed their individual identity in relation to positive self-image and a sense of worth, and how this sat in respect to identifying as part of a wider community of others with shared interests, fostering a sense of belonging and connectedness. Importantly, these digital engagements also had negative eudemonic impacts, particularly concerning the stresses and pressures of operating small businesses on Instagram, cultivating a particular image of self, or ‘brand’, and the projection of authenticity.