Blog
Ceramic Sisters (Forward - Autumn 2025)
When artist Emily Kilby, 27, from Hertfordshire, sustained her incomplete SCI caused by Transverse Myelitis she thought she’d have to give up painting. But when she began to paint the ceramics her sister made she found her love for art all over again. Now with over 190K followers on Instagram (@wheelygoodceramics) Emily recently shared her story with FORWARD magazine.
Hi, I’m Emily, half of Wheely Good Ceramics. My younger sister is an amazing ceramist – she makes pots, and I paint them with my mouth. I cannot use my hands, due to having a C3/4 incomplete SCI caused by Transverse myelitis in 2013.
Before my injury I used to love art, but my SCI, and my limited mobility, meant I could no longer do it with my hands. I tried painting with a brush strapped to my hand whilst I was in hospital, but due to my lack of control and movement I hated the result. All I could think was that I would never be good at it like I used to be and so I quickly gave up.
Back at school, I focussed on my academic subjects, and went onto study an undergraduate and masters at The London School of Economics. It wasn’t until after university that I tried art again but this time with my mouth. I’d seen another paralysed artist online painting with their mouth using an adapted tool and I really wanted to try it. Frustratingly I still didn’t like the result. I struggled to fill a canvas, (a big white space was rather daunting) and I couldn’t find a painting medium that I liked – watercolour dried too quick and acrylic was too stiff for me to move and didn’t flow as I liked whilst holding a brush in my mouth.
At the same time, my younger sister Olivia was learning pottery, and suggested I tried to paint a piece she’d made with my mouth using underglaze. I loved the process and the result! She shared a video on social media and it went viral. We have been making pieces together ever since, documenting our journey online.
Creating art brings me joy and mouth-painting allows me to regain a hobby I loved and thought I would never be able to do again. It also helps me switch off mentally as I find painting to be a good form of therapy.
Documenting our ceramic journey online has led to us creating a large community, and has connected us with others in a similar situation to myself, and has inspired them to adapt and find new ways of doing things they used to enjoy before their SCI.
Follow Emily and her sister on Instagram @ wheelygoodceramics/
Visit their website wheelygoodceramics.com
This article was featured in the Autumn 2025 issue of FORWARD magazine the only magazine dedicated to the spinal cord injury community.