Journal
Hand Care for Makers (Part 1)
Most makers have issues, sooner or later, of pain in their hands. Maybe also in their wrists, forearms and shoulders. Repetitive use, habitual patterns of movement and tension all contribute to this. Here are 6 simple stretches to help you stay supple and free of...
Wild Pottery: Clay – digging your own
What is Clay?Ask this of anyone and they’ll most likely reply ‘mud’. And that's true... but there’s also more to it than that. It’s made up of one or more clay minerals with traces of metal oxides and organic matter. Clay minerals are formed over long periods of time,...
Woven Dwelling
One winter, the East Sussex Archaeology and Museums Partnership team, led by Christabel Shelley and Ian Dunford, constructed a beautiful dwelling, influenced by archaeological findings at Deer Park Farms in County Antrim, Ireland, an early rath (ringfort or settlement...
Hazel Holloway at Wakehurst (Kew)
Walking through Pearcelands Wood at Wakehurst Kew, on a quiet, mid-winter day; woods I know well from making a sculpture here a few years ago. As I walk, an open awareness of the trees, plants, creatures; the light and the weather… open to what might present itself as...
Threading Thorns
A photgraphic essay. Weaving bramble baskets in the woods, I'm joined by photographer Bethany Hobbs. These are her words and images, her story of our day.The humble bramble, the scratcher, the snarer, the snagger of jumpers, the bearer of tongue-staining fruit, it...
Featured Artist
I talk with the founder of Plants & Colour, Flora Arbuthnott, about how I approach working with wild gathered materials in my creative practice. Intimacy with the landscape, the living world, plants, earth, other creatures, has always been meaningful to me as a...
Forage of the Month
Forage of the Month- February
Bramble Tips Lots of us know bramble as the blackberry bush, the one that gives us those delicious autumnal berries that stain our fingers and tongues. Bramble plants are vigorous and plentiful in their growing habit, and the hardiness of the plant means it has a...
Forage of the Month- November/December
Rosehip VinegarThis is a favourite, super-easy recipe. It comes from 'Hedgerow Medicine' by friends Julie and Matthew Bruton-Seal. You can easily find loads of recipes for rose hip syrup... but if you want to preserve their goodness without using sugar this is the...
Forage of the Month- Oct/Nov
Birch Polypore This is the wild mushroom that’s in the soup we cook on the fire for lunch on my woodland courses. Birch Polypore (Fomitopsis betulina) is also known as razor strop fungus, birch conk, birch bracket. It’s valued for its medicinal properties and my...