creative Fridays at salcare - april

Oh my! It's almost a month since the final 'Creative Fridays' Salcare session in Heanor. Together we made bunting emblazoned with "Salcare craft & chat' sharing how great it would be for the group to continue gathering, connecting and creating with their bunting hanging proudly in the cafe space 😀

The week before the group created fabulous linocut prints, making sketchbooks, cards and even wrapping paper!   

Can't believe how the time flew, I'd like to thank the group for being so welcoming and also thank Make/Shift and Derbyshire Makes for this opportunity.

Colour pop

Sunflower repeat

Gold & blue

Team work - bunting

Hand stitching

Salcare Craft & Chat

creative fridays at salcare - march

I'm half way through the Creative Fridays project at Salcare in Heanor, Derbyshire - time flies! Inspired by all things Heanor, memory, making and nature connectedness we've drawn, played with colour, created 3D forms with PVA & lace, tried calligraphy, designed, cut and printed Lino blocks! The April sessions will begin this week with fabric and stitch 😀

Thank you to MAKE/SHIFT and Derbyshire Makes for this opportunity. So looking forward to the Derbyshire Makes Festival 2026 in Heanor on Saturday 2nd May.

Colour wheel

Careful observation

Inspired by Heanor lace

Calligraphy

Linocut design

Colour mixing & inking the Lino block

creative fridays at salcare

Happy to share I'll be spending Friday mornings in March, April (& 1st May) at Salcare in Heanor, getting creative in the lead up to the Derbyshire Makes Festival 2026 🎉

share the harvest

Was so delighted to stitch this banner as a gift for Thrivemind Village (39 Iron Gate, Derby, DE1 3GA) in celebration of their brilliant COMMUNITY FRIDGE!

I dropped the banner off this week and grabbed tasty apples from the fridge. It's open to everyone and contains locally grown, mostly organic fruit and veg and anyone can share or take food.

The Community Fridge is open Friday 3-6pm and Saturday 11am-4pm.

Nothing new was purchased to make the banner - it includes pre-loved textiles from my stash and bits and bobs from the Play and Recycling Centre in Derby and Ashgate Hospice charity shop in Heanor. Some of the patterned elements are from my mum's 1970's aprons! Doreen liked a pattern and it was particularly nice to work with these textiles as it would have been her 90th birthday on 13th October this week.

I'm hoping the banner will attract passers-by to step over the threshold of Thrivemind Village and discover all the amazing creative, connected, nurturing things going on while grabbing nutritious food for tea!

dare to dream pillowcase banners 🙂

The weekend of the 5th & 6th of April served sunshine in a brilliant blue sky! We were so fortunate!

It was wonderful to share Dare to Dream, the mass participation element of Derbyshire Makes: an opportunity to stitch hopes and dreams for the future in Derbyshire using sustainable fabrics from the Play & Recycling Centre - Derby.

15 participants kindly left their work to be added to the pillowcase banners, shown below - stunning! Some wrote down the motivation and thoughts behind their stitches, and I added these to the work using a wooden typeface set - wise and generous words. There are more textile patches out in the world, taken home to be treasured and worked into - I like to think of these as 'siblings' of the textile patches below, becoming part of everyday life, mementoes of a shared expression of hope in Heanor.

Unity, Derbyshire Makes - Heanor

All Roads Lead to Derbyshire, Derbyshire makes - Heanor

derbyshire makes festival - Heanor

What a brilliant weekend. Heanor market place was buzzing with fun, connection, creativity and positive energy. 

I had a blast running Dare to Dream, the mass participation element of Derbyshire Makes: a chance to stitch hopes and dreams for the future using sustainable fabrics from the Play & Recycling Centre - Derby.

We were blessed with gorgeous weather, and it was lovely to see Heanor create, play and stitch together. 

A MAKEFESTO!

Young maker

First stitches

All roads lead to Derbyshire

Dare to Dream - tolerant people

Generations

Stitcher from Portugal

Friendship

"Friendship is so important, a smile, a friendly nod can mean so much. Don't be afraid 

to talk to someone, you might be the only person they connect with all day."

draw_derby

The idea to draw Derby has been floating around in my head for a while - so here goes! 

Draw Derby is a free-monthly-untutored-bring your own materials-outdoor-all welcome-gathering in the city centre. Come and meet like minded others and DRAW! Find Draw Derby on Instagram.

Draw Derby takes place on the last Saturday of each month throughout 2022. For further details and to book free eventbrite tickets for January's gathering click here.

Drawing materials at the ready, see you on the 29th ✋🏻✏️📗

haarlem artspace residency - 10th november - day 2

Walk circling Haarlem Artspace and Hob Wood. Found footpaths missed yesterday and paths I'd walked once felt familiar. Made four listening circle drawings, enjoying the process of listening in the landscape, attempting to draw without judgement (almost impossible).

I'd like to draw inside Hob Wood, but on approaching a promising gap in a hedgerow found a barbed wire fence, and another surrounding the wood.

Tomorrow I'll walk the circle again, and again on Thursday, the last walk during the virtual residency. Thursday I'll gather rosehip and hawthorn for a hedgerow tonic to share with residency artists. 

Pratthall Lane

Drinking trough and drawing

Hob Wood

haarlem artspace residency - 9th november - day 1

Today I began a week long virtual residency at Haarlem Artspace exploring my practice in relation to the landscape around Haarlem Mill alongside Tracey Meek, Anna Mawby, Tricia Rice, Jo Heron and Christine Thomas.

Walk circling Haarlem Artspace and Hob Wood. Got lost a couple of times, over estimating distance and walking further than needed, and this led to an unexpected meeting with a friend on the footpath - perfect.

A mild day, muddy underfoot, was grateful for the sturdy stick I took along. I find a walking stick grounding and supportive, giving a particular gravity to a walk and making me more in my body somehow.   

Pratthall Lane

Rosehip

Hob Wood