#PickYourselfUp is a social project gifting free ceramics, improving mental wellbeing and cleaning our community's streets and parks.

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Why -

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I dislike the litter in our streets and have a personal story with mental health, that through many avenues of thought, has led me to combining these two issues along with my skills as a potter.

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My personal story of mental health stems from losing my job and a subsequent loss of drive, meaning and my feeling of place in this world. What eventually got me out of a spiral and back onto a somewhat decent trajectory, was finding some purpose in every day tasks. After months of inaction and wallowing around, I saw the impact that tidying the house had on my wife, who understandably, had been struggling to cope with a husband who could not get out of his own way.  All of a sudden I was having a positive influence on somebody and the trajectory was up from there.

The catalyst for my change was the '12 rules for life' book by Jordan B Peterson, specifically the chapter entitled "clean your room". The chapter outlined all the good that could come at a personal level from cleaning your room, but went further to outline how good actions and deeds have more utility and good, when they improve things across time and communities.

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#pickyourself up is a reach out to my community, locally and online to improve our circumstances. With the recent Covid pandemic, there seemed to be no other time to finally put my thoughts together and roll out what has been on my mind for some time. I want to use my skills as a potter, to encourage those of you who may be struggling, to put yourself back on a good path into the future.

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What it involves -

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its a very simple proposition - Pick litter. Get ceramics.

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Every Wednesday, I will be heading out into the streets and parks surrounding my house and picking litter for an hour and i want you to join me. If you complete 10 hours (10 weeks) you will receive one 8oz cup and one 6oz cup from me as a thank you, the value of which is £60.

Every Wednesday, get on your instagram stories, post a before and after picture of your street/park and your bag of litter with the hashtag #pickyourself up and the tag @littletorchceramics.

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Ill log your hours and when you've hit 10, send me your address and you'll get some cups in the post. All i ask is that you to pay the postage charge (£5) for your cups. 

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I will be rolling this out as soon as the lock down has finished, so you have a bit of time to get things in place. If you're interested in being involved and want to be reminded when it all starts, please contact me via email at littletorchceramcs@gmail.com.

 

Most local councils offer free litter picking kits, so reach out and you should get one in the post. if your council does not offer them for free, you can purchase one here. 

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Cheers

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M

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*due to my limited capacity to make, i will have to limit the number of entrants to 50 (100 cups), but if we can get some more makers involved, who knows.