This week I saw images online of a wonderful creative display in a Midlands town to mark Remembrance Day. Local crafters came together to yarn bomb the high street, crocheting poppy themed toppers for the postboxes and making a large fabric collage scene as a wall hanging. Creativity at its best – enhancing the communityContinue reading “Reinventing Community”
Tag Archives: craft
Christmas Greetings
What do you think is the most overshadowed way art and creativity can help mental health & wellbeing? The more I’ve led and learned, the more I feel that making art or craft to share and give away needs to be promoted. Yes, a lot of this happens, but more publicity and cooperation would encourageContinue reading “Christmas Greetings”
Growing Old Creatively
Living in the moment can be one of the arts’ best gifts, lifting us out of the everyday and out of the wider picture. Maybe this is all the more important in older age, opening up space to imagine, to enjoy, to create, to produce or just to be. Silver Sunday ( the first SundayContinue reading “Growing Old Creatively”
Craft A Way
Creativity comes in so many different forms, and some stand out for us in how they lift mood and wellbeing. Art, drawing and painting, have to come first for me, but I have come to enjoy craft as well. I’m newer to craft, so I enjoy the variety and the stimulus, experimenting to see whatContinue reading “Craft A Way”
Empowered
Art and craft can enhance life in so many ways and all the time I’m discovering new possibilities. Focusing as I do on how they can improve wellbeing – personal change – I’m also seeking ways they can fuel and fire wider change, as through craftivism, creative activism, using art and craft to challenge. I’veContinue reading “Empowered”
Light And Shade
The more I share and learn and experiment with art for wellbeing, the more different impacts I see and experience. Art can be therapy for all different issues, some long-running or severe, others more everyday. Many of us struggle with the long hours of darkness in early and mid winter, the days when it barelyContinue reading “Light And Shade”
Art On A Journey
On October 19th, a young Syrian refugee will cross the Channel and step ashore in Kent towards the end of a long journey. But this coming ashore will be different to so many others. This young “girl” is actually a puppet called Little Amal, and her journey is a way of highlighting what life isContinue reading “Art On A Journey”
Crafting A Different World
Craftivism is growing. Just lately, an upsurge in creativity during lockdowns and a renewed commitment to justice issues has fired many more people’s imaginations to take part. The Cambridge English Dictionary defines craftivism as “the activity of using crafts…to change the world”. And I believe that craftivism may not only help change the world, butContinue reading “Crafting A Different World”
Crafting Away
Fuelled by the times we live in, craft is booming. With Covid-19 lockdowns, many have turned to craft to occupy themselves or to make scrubs and masks. And as awareness grows of the climate emergency, people are reducing, reusing and recycling more, and upcycling as well. TV programmes like Sewing Bee and The Repair ShopContinue reading “Crafting Away”
Breathing Space
Many people welcome any new year with euphoria, with high hopes of new opportunities. For others a new year might be a time of fear, anxiety, dread or uncertainty over what is to come. To many people every single day is a hurdle, let alone an entire year. People who care for others, or whoContinue reading “Breathing Space”
Medley 