Crafting art from clay Father-and-son duo preserve a dying art

Turning piles of hardened clay into beautiful works of art, using little more than pieces of wood, a keen eye and well-trained hands. It's a talent Paul Wiles has mastered over three decades of making and selling flower and teapots at a shanty, roadside workshop at Melrose Hill in Manchester. The art of making clay pots, he said, is dying fast, even though demand for the creations is growing rapidly.

"People love them, especially uptown. If yuh know where to sell, yuh don't have hand to sell dem. But, yuh know, nobody want to do this kind of work these days," he said.

"Everybody looking quick money. Dem rather buy it from me and sell it back, than to make them themselves."

But Wiles, an unrepentant clay-pot-making enthusiast, has invested hours to ensure that the art of moulding clay into useful and beautiful pots lives on.

He has taught his son Ita all he knows.

"Over the years, growing wid me at dis little shop, di boy see him old man working wid di dirt," said Wiles.

"Mi ensure dat him see what I was doing and mi show him dat even though dis work is slow, when yuh invest di time, when yuh done, then di glory come," Wiles said, laughing.

SOMETHING POWERFUL

Ita Wiles, now 22 years old has fallen in love with making pots and vases from clay.

"Well, I see what my old man do wid just him hands alone, yuh know. It make me really look and say, this thing is really something powerful," he said.

"Him don't use a wheel like some other potters. Him only use him hands and shape them, and then him have a oven where him bake dem. That means yuh have to have a certain level of skill to do this, and I think that is what make me love it so much," the younger Wiles said.

The two purchase bags of clay at farms and construction sites in Manchester. It takes about three hours to mould a single, small pot. Then, the pieces are left to dry for about a day, and later baked to perfection in a makeshift outdoor oven.

"It nice to sit back and watch how one bag of clay, dat just look like a bag of mud, can change into these things that people use to decorate dem house wid. Is really a joy," said Ita.

"I hope more people would really take on to dis thing again. Is really artistic and di world need more of these things."