Stephen Sanders shapes the clay with deft fingers - caressing, prodding, strumming it into a shape he sees in his mind. Forever, only in his mind.

Sanders is a blind artist.

Fifteen years ago, while he was a junior in college, an automobile accident left Sanders in a coma for six months. When he awoke, it was without his sight. He spent months wondering what he would do with the rest of his life. 

The art of throwing pottery developed slowly in him, as did his sense of touch - until his fingers became his eyes.

Today pottery feeds Sanders' life. It has become his hobby, his work, his special skill. Sanders, regrets he has not been able to turn his art form into a fully-paying job and he said he reluctantly still relies on a government grant for some living expenses.

He has had several positions as a volunteer pottery instructor, including his current job teaching 10 children at Samuel Grand Recreation Center.

Potter enjoys teaching children his art form

The children respond to Sanders' blindness with openness. As he arrived for his lesson recently, they rushed out to carry his bag and newsprint-wrapped pottery he was holding.

Sanders encourages his little helpers. He said it creates a better rapport during the lesson.

And they quickly adjusted to the fact that Sanders has impaired hearing by speaking more clearly when they questioned him.

"My clay's got cracks in it. What do I do?"

"I can't get my clay into a round ball. What should I do?"

But sometimes the questions are more bold, and more personal.

"Art Linkletter's book Kids Say the Darndest Things often reminds me of some of the things the kids I've taught come up with. They'll come up to me and say: "This stuff sure feels weird, or smells weird."

"And once they're more relaxed with me they come right out and ask questions about how it feels to be blind."

But Sanders said he enjoys the openness and honesty of the children.

And his deft fingers are always helping to correct errors the little ones have made as they hand mould the clay, kneading out its bumps, and helping to shape the pottery.

And as he walks around the long table, feeling the clay mounds to ensure that his instructions have been followed out, the children courteously pull in their chairs as he passes.

"Did you hear how they all said 'thank you' to me after the class?" Sanders asked, "That makes me feel good. They obviously enjoyed the lesson."

An advertising art major at North Texas State University, Sanders was 21 years old when the accident changed his life.

The brakes on a truck he was driving failed. "I was told that I was thrown out of the truck onto concrete and was in a coma for six months," Sanders said.

When he left the hospital, Sanders spent months in a rehabilitation center.

A craft instructor at the center heard that Sanders was an advertising art major and that he had learned pottery at high school.

"The crafts class had a potter's wheel and realized that it was the best method I had of being creative," Sanders said.

"It helped me when I found I was blind. I lost my girlfriend after the accident, I lost immediate friends who could no longer relate to me as a blind person. Pottery gave me a means of feeling productive," Sanders said.