Week Twenty-Two: Art in Health

This week I have completed the Introduction to Art in Health short course with Wrexham University. This course has helped me to step back into the role of a Creative Producer and to think critically about how I would design and deliver an art in health project within primary care. I am often questioning the difference between art in health and art therapy as at times it has felt that the boundaries can get a little blurred. This has helped me to establish my own approach to art in health. What am I comfortable with? I believe that the creative activities should have a positive impact on the patient. The themes should be uplifting and should avoid triggering any negative emotions. I am realising that my practice brings together art and horticulture, and has a focus on nature connection for wellbeing.

Cyanotype Workshop (2024)

I have previously developed a Creative Wellbeing programme of nature-based art activities for patients within primary care who have been referred in through Social Prescribing. My recent training has helped me to realise that I was already starting to develop my own approach to art in health, and that this is something that can be built upon with consultation of working with different client groups. Whilst I have gained experienced of delivering workshops in community settings, I would be interested in gaining experience of working within hospital environments and care homes with both patients and with staff members in the future. I’m thinking about the stepping stones that will help me to feel confident enough to deliver such activities and I have been looking for volunteering opportunities to gain experience of working within these environments. I’m questioning how I would make a hospital environment feel less clinical for a creative workshop. I wonder if any hospitals in the East Midlands have access to garden spaces that would be suitable for a creative workshop? I’m also thinking about participants who are experiencing an illness and how this could impact their ability to take part in an activity. Each session needs to stand alone to allow for participants to come and go without the pressure of committing to a whole programme. So I’m setting myself a goal - to explore this work further so that I feel ready to deliver a workshop for NHS patients and staff by the end of 2026.

Week Twenty-One: My Relationship with Plants

Over the last few weeks I have been reflecting on the ethics of what I'm doing as part of my research and development. I'm beginning to feel a little uneasy about foraging for natural materials, despite only ever collecting small handfuls of plant matter. I'm feeling grateful that I now have the allotment to grow my own plants for natural colour making, however it means that this process just got a whole lot slower. It's been important for me to go back to the beginning and reflect on my own relationship with plants and how that has shifted and changed as a result of this research and development. I'm thinking back to times spent making cyanotypes of weeds in my back yard during the covid lockdowns. I'm thinking of times walking the same daily route in nature and noticing the subtle changes in the seasons as the wildflowers came into bloom. I'm thinking about times when this practice of connecting with nature has helped me to step outside of my head for even a second and become aware of the present moment. Noticing the shapes of leaves and wondering how they might press, and becoming fascinated with the preservation of plants almost frozen in time. I've often turned to nature in search of meaning in life, exploring their symbolisms and this bringing me a sense of comfort during difficult times. I only feel glad that my relationship with plants is evolving and that I am considering the impact of extraction on the environment and wildlife. I'm learning more about the origins of plants and am becoming more aware of what is UK-native.

Reading Material

I'm reflecting on why plants matter to me and am questioning any links to my ancestry. I often think of my grandparents when I think of plants that have a sentimental meaning to me. Whether its willow and its association with water dowsing, the endless supply of runner beans that would be harvested from my grandparents garden, or the smell of tomatoes growing in their greenhouse. I was faced with a bit of a stumbling block when I started this project as I found that many of the places I wanted to forage and connect with through natural colour making were SSSI's and I wondered how I might connect with my own history without including these places. I am thinking more about the places that maybe I have overlooked such as the gardens of my family members and the local parks that were once my stomping ground. I am thinking about trees such as the elder and times making wooden beads or elderflower fritters at my bushcraft group. I am thinking about the crab apple tree and it's sentimental meaning to me. I am thinking about the cherry trees in the National Forest and learning that you can use it's gum as an alternative to gum arabic for natural ink making. I have to acknowledge that even at the end of this period of research and development, I am only at the beginning of where this learning will take me. And I am so grateful to all the forest school leaders, community gardeners and natural colour making artists that I am meeting and will continue to connect with along the way.

Week Twenty: Natural Dye Workshop at Bloom Sheffield

This week I've been at Bloom Sheffield to take part in a natural dye workshop led by artist Charlie Hill. The workshop began with a walk in Cat Lane Wood to forage for hawthorn berries and oak galls. It was here that I got the chance to see a cherry gall for the first time! We learnt about winter tree identification and found lots of jelly ear fungi. The woods sit next to the Heeley & Meersbrook allotment site, home to two of Bloom Sheffield's allotment plots.

Heeley & Meersbrook Allotments

We returned to Big Bloom to learn about natural dyes and modifiers. Charlie had a variety of natural dyes in jars for us to paint onto samples of calico fabric. This included beetroot, turmeric, red onion, hollyhock, goldenrod and madder. Charlie demonstrated how to steep, simmer and strain a natural dye and had a camping cooking set up at the allotment. We also experimented with the Hapa Zome technique of hammering leaves underneath fabric to leave a natural dye.

Natural Dye Sample

The workshop felt like a forest school for adults experience and was part of Bloom's Winter Wellbeing events. It was inspiring to be part of a group of creative women, mixing natural dye potions together in the outdoors. I started to wonder what it would feel like to be part of a regular group of natural dyers and it was recommended to me to join my local guild of weavers, spinners and dyers.

Natural Dye Sample

As the majority of my learning so far has taken place online, there was something really special about coming offline and being part of a group in real life in nature. I reflected on our connections to place and how it felt to be somewhere that I have no emotional connection, versus my experiences of foraging in my own neighbourhood. I started to think about how I might run natural dye workshops for children and adults in the future and how I would like them to look and feel.