CHAMPION OF HISTORY, ARTS & CULTURE.
Curating and preserving stories through all things creative...
Developing, connecting & expanding business through imaginative marketing & events
I am a creative project freelancer, digital marketing storyteller, researcher and copywriter with 15 years experience, specialising in Heritage, the Arts and Culture.
Working with people and places, organisations large and small to amplify their stories, with strategic planning, project development & implementation and event management .
From digging deep into your audiences to get the narrative right for a new project to delivering a press or network event, I’ll take the pressure off and integrate into the whole business - becoming an extension of your team minus the holiday pay!
Partner to a few special places, past and present
#welliesandwificreative
CREATE.CURATE.CONNECT.
Get connected and bring your work to the people who will fall in
love with it....
#welliesandwificreative
ENGAGE.PRESENT.PRESERVE.
Develop a strategy and vision that will bring your events
and treasures to life....
Proud Member of
Wellies Journal
To snap or not to snap!
Hannah makes jewellery with a big heart! Delicate "everyday" designs that are a token of joy, adding that little bit of shine to the rhythms of life, with every single piece in the collections having an intention or story behind it. The ethos of her Hannah's business came from that ever striving need to be a thoughtful giver of gifts that are meaningful. Hannah Weston Jewellery is a celebration of the stories that knit our lives together and connect us to our dearest family and friends. Family sits at the core of everything — the Nordic collection names featured in Hannahs collections are a nod to her brother and his family in Norway. We've had many conversations about how running your own business has its own highs and lows (being a one man band can be a lonely place at times) but Hannah has gone from strength to strength and the last few years have seen her producing work for two pop up stints in John Lewis, a feature in Tatler magazine, a little spot in Holly Tuckers "fly the flag for small business" campaign (see the video here) and a move from juggling the business with a full time teaching job, to full time, self employed brilliant craftswoman and maker. I chatted with Hannah about how she came to be the founder of her own company and the journey she's been on get to where she is now. "I think my journey was a bit accidental… I never woke up one day and thought ‘oooh, I think I’d like to start a jewellery business’. I started making jewellery as a child – I was born with no fingers on one hand and went through a number of phases of trying to do everything one handed. The first phase was as a toddler, so my Mum would sit down at the dining room table with me and we’d string buttons on shirring elastic and make necklaces. I like being creative – making things with my hands. My Gran taught me to knit and embroider and make my own clothes. In 2013 my jewellery making got a bit more serious and I started to document my journey on social media – I gained a bit of a following and people started to ask me to make Christmas and Birthday presents. Then when I went back to work part time after having my daughter, my hours would fluctuate each year, giving me a bit more time to invest in my business – and I got to the point where I thought ‘you know what…. let’s give this a go, see if it can be a thing’ – I didn’t want to get to 60 having not tried."
Born in Hong Kong Jenny Chan spent much of her childhood on the small island of Nauru, Micronesia, northeast of Australia but settled in the UK around five and a half years ago. Working with clay, her works are sculptural, primary about faces, making figurative figurines, wall masks and during 2020 she launched a new series of framed small faces wall art. "Not in wildest dreams did I think that I would be in the creative industry. I started my clay journey in 2014 during a very difficult time in my life. I am mostly self-taught from watching hours of YouTube. I found clay gave me focus, peace and fulfilment, the ideal distraction for relieving anxiety away from life difficulties and isolation as a new immigrant in the UK." Without any formal education in arts or ceramics, Jenny believes her love of 3D objects developed tinkering from an early age as the "handy woman" of the house! Without access to a kiln, Jenny then worked as a cleaner in exchange for free kiln firing time within a commercial studio - the Ceramic Studio in Stratford-upon-Avon. After then joining a local artist group, the Leamington Artists Studio, she realised her work was actually being very well received. Grappling with the latest technologies and a changing society after emerging from being a stay at home mum for 16 years was daunting but Jenny's confidence grew not just with her clay skills but within herself as a person during her time at Leamington. As a ceramicist her influencers include works from Rhian Malin , who Jenny observes has made such incredible achievements since 2016 - reaching from a great online presence to having her work heavily featured in many publications. Following a move to the North, Jenny was offered an opportunity in the Craft Council Hot House Programme in 2019 - a Yorkshire Artspace Starter Program which she feels was a pivotal moment for her work that did not centre around her age, ethnicity or educational background. Guiding her work has always been an inner focus on things that are important to Jenny - integrity, honesty and above all a woman trying to find peace and self-worth within. Using traditional hand-building techniques in coiling and slab building, each piece is unique and individually sculpted generally taking a number of days to perfect. No two pieces are the same and are made using mainly porcelain and stoneware clay. Some sculptures are partially press-moulded and individually carved whilst others sculpted from scratch. Any impressions and inlay surface decoration is made using a minimal glaze - coloured slips, oxides and underglazes, emphasising a natural clay texture and colour. Jenny's designs are very much guided by her surroundings of the day, something she may have read or seen on TV. The face mask series based on BBC100 women for example included some modelling on famous people, ie. Amelia Earhart, ‘Grayson Perry’ entwined with imaginary characters. During the March 2020 lockdown Jenny developed a new series ‘Standing Together’ (seen below) for NHS workers, a long-lasting recognition gift for their dedication to the Pandemic. Channelling her focus and anxiety around the Pandemic Jenny was able to make small framed wall art from modelling clay without the use of kiln firing. "If I cannot make work in the studio, I will use a shower plastic curtain on my carpeted floor to make work."
Wellies & Wifi on Instagram
Winter Solstice Day at Scarbados with these two ❄️☀️ Hot Chocolates the order of the day!
My nans ashes were scattered in Scarborough which sounds morbid & weird. It’s not.
Everytime we go there we say a little hello particularly at this time of year. She wasn’t from Scarborough but spent many day trips there, I remember eating grated cheese sandwiches from Clock cafe every school holidays with my grandparents.
And I once saw Tony Blair when I was with them canvassing when I was about 11 😆
My grandparents were a massive part of life and if not the main event at Christmas. This time of year just makes me reminisce for what’s been and is no more, except now it’s all about creating the memories for these loons 💛
PRInvite/ A chilly but lovely night @rhsharlowcarr for their winter light trail Glow ✨
The children loved leaving their wishes on the wishing tree ✍️ and I confirm the Rum Hot Chocolate is v.delish and warms the cockles!
Thank you to the team at Betty’s for inviting us.
Still catching up after last weekend - absolute pleasure to have been part of the team organising the Christmas Market in York at the weekend. 🛍️
When I say team - there’s three of us juggling parenting and other work whilst we organise 😊
The Market has grown from a conversation over a brew we had, after watching Holly Tucker speak live about the importance of small businesses, we knew we needed to do more and get more happening in our little corner of the North!
From musicians dropping out at the last min & coffee machines malfunctioning we’re happy to say we made it through our third year of doing it 🙌🏻✨
HUGE thank you to everyone that visited and purchased from one of the small businesses, and to @applecharlottecakes and @rustic_rose_company for the juggle struggle!
Life in pictures this week 😅 looks like lots of frivolity - however it’s been all work with plenty of travel thrown in and little time to stop and think!
This time of year is always SO bonkers as well as launching Christmas everywhere, Spring deadlines are ahoy so I’ve a foot in each season 🙃
There’s also been been cross words with a journalist, nativity lines to be learnt, tax return looming doom and frocks sold on Vinted so…
Homemade cider from apples scrumped from next doors tree have helped fuel the madness this evening though and picking damsons for some cheeky gin to brew over the winter!
This weekend I’ll be at the brilliant @winterinthewheellhousemarket 🛍️ full of independent creatives! Pop along and say 👋🏻
Saturday skimming stone spots on our doorstep, so many colours 🍁
Cultural 2 hours soaking up the motherland before picking children up from grandparents.
Always an overwhelming sense it’s home with so many things always the same, yet so much changed, memories in every stone and fully expecting to see my mates still working in the shops like when we were 16!
Wanderings included @sheffmuseums @shefflibraries @sheffieldcathedral @parkhillsheffield @weareurbansplash @weareambulo
With a spot of @alanmeasles thrown in!
Always a little slab of my heart in the steel city 🖤
Damien Hirst’s gold sculpture St Bartholomew and ceiling painting of the resurrection of Christ by the French artist Louis Laguerre.
📍The Chapel inside Chatsworth House.
A hidden jewel in York is the small but perfectly formed, award winning garden @nt_york Treasurers House (winning Gold for six consecutive years in Yorkshire in Bloom!)
Treasurers House was the first to be gifted to the National Trust complete with its collection in 1930 by fab Frank, a wealthy local industrialist who loved a lavish party - a dapper dresser, changing his clothes at least three times a day, with a love for bowler hats, hand-tied bow ties, capes and frilly shirts!
Spooky going’s on have also been widely reported with the most notable hauntings by a group of Roman soldiers 🪖who frequent the cellar, due to the fact the house is built directly over one of the main Roman roads leading out of (Roman) York.
Worth a wander if you’re in York.
Position A - for the foreseeable / preferably with a G & T in hand! 🍹
Still home to the oldest seaside orchestra, with grand Victorian architecture, originally designed by Joseph Paxton, the landscape gardener and architect responsible for the grounds of Chatsworth House.
Always a pleasure to visit @yspsculpture especially when pop art icon Robert Indiana’s work is on show - known widely for his highly commercialised “LOVE” artworks, which are nestled in the outside landscape in Wakey’s countryside.
Other works inside from the “Eat” series also feature - the words “eat” and “die” first appeared in his work in 1962, stemming from the fact that the last word his mother said before she died was eat!!
The work then evolved deeper into looking at giving affection, to existence, to love and survival. Still not sure what the Err is though 🤔…
The ruined & cursed wing - where Olly Cromwell’s alleged headless torso lies next door…
Waiting for Poldark ⛵️…
📍Porthgwarra
A morning spent frolicking in flowers @helmsleywalledgarden wishing I could retain plant name info 🌸
May have sampled coffee + cake too in the Vine House Cafè and realised we’re entitled to a years pass because we live so close 🙌🏻
#accidentlywesanderson
Still not over this hidden gem of architecture in York concealed in unassuming exterior.
Hidden by a Georgian front façade @barconventyork is the oldest surviving Catholic convent in England, established in 1686!!
The laws of England at the time prohibited the foundation of Catholic convents and as a result, the convent was both established and operated in secret 🤯
Days like these ☀️ Summer Solstice
Few more years before a big birthday, reckon I can swindle having a party here?! Pretty sure the acoustics would be good for some 80/90s renaissance playlists no?
Just hanging out next to some DNA 🧬
The ceramic installation is a fascinating contemporary take on family portraits - playing with ideas around ancestry. Clever yet confusing.
A fusion of art and architecture, portrayals of the DNA of the Duke and Duchess of Devonshire and their heirs, forms a permanent part of the fabric of the building inside Chatsworth House.
Artist, Jacob van der Beugel handmade 659 ceramic tile panels 😱 depicting the DNA belonging to the family - so each panel is unique and only fits in one place.
Inside the rest of the House - Living With Art We Love is this years exhibition before the current D&D retire, a collection of their own private objects: paintings, sculpture, furniture, ceramics and textiles which is incredible to see. The guides inside are brilliant we took a 10 & 5 year old in and they were so engaging in every room, not stuffy and overprotective but informative and directive 🏛
There’s also a HUGE expo on outside more to come on that soon…
Visiting Babs @yspsculpture 📍
Looking forward to seeing Robert Indiana’s iconic LOVE and other works from March too 😃
📍Scarborough South Cliff.
Bereft we can’t head to the beach because of some weird virus that’s making all the Yorkshire coast beaches unsafe for dogs at the moment!
Did go for an explore a couple of weeks ago and finally found the South Cliffe huts! Now Grade II listed and still with some original interior panelling intact at 111 years old! The area has had a shed load of cash thrown at it following a landslide to save it from all ending up in the sea! 🌊
Scarborough is still a funny old goat though - with gems of architecture & history, there’s still an air of underbelly bubbling - like things might kick off around every corner…
Goal for 2022 though - get in the sea 🩱🏊🏻♀️
Into the woods… freedom searchin’🌲
Some places just have their own kind of magic ✨
Is it even Christmas if you haven’t visited a historic house dressed for the festive season? 🎄✨
Narnia @castle_howard with possibly the biggest tree ever in the Great Hall…
BOOM 💥 back doing events!
So, so lovely to see old and new faces @whitesykefields @winterinthewheellhousemarket yesterday…
Business owners that for the last year, like all of us, have had to diversify, they’ve kept on squirrelling away in their homes or had an idea and lockdown gave them the opportunity to turn it into a reality!
For me seeing everyone doing what they love, in real time with real people is priceless and a gentle reminder that shopping independent is MUST not just over the festive season but for the foreseeable!
Thank you to everyone that slugged a few mulled wines + munched a mince pie! 🍷
Half term = messy + slightly lazier, wilder days and I’m here for it.
So strange before the pandemic I was all about the routine for various reasons - mainly to make sure we got out the house on time 😂 but it also had an edge of panic always. If we didn’t have a routine the world would come crashing down.
I’m so grateful to have shifted that mindset. To have let go. To be able to be wild in nature. Even if it does mean we’re occasionally late for things now 😃
Yes Leeds!
So many Saturdays spent in here when we were 15, collecting flyers for DJ nights that we never went to but pretended we did! Buying clothes from independent shops, I once bought a skirt that was basically cotton tote bags stitched together, with German writing on it - sounds weird I thought I was the coolest indie kid in it 😂…
And I seem to remember a neon shop that had crotchless garments in it 👀😳…
always a pleasure to spend time in the city.
These two both got star of the week this week - (like buses not one for ages and then BOOM two in one week 🤣)..
They’ve celebrated by having ‘sleepovers’ in each other’s bedrooms and watching films.
They bicker and fight like most siblings but when they buzz off each other it’s heartwarming to see.
I’m an only child so never had that - it must be so magical to have another person to share everything about childhood with.
My only hope is they continue to look after each other because jeez navigating the world is tough 💙
Me: omg stop the car that’s the most photographed house in the whole of Scottish houses on Instagram I absolutely need to get a picture!
Also me: 👆🏻doin it for the gram ⛈⛈
How we managed to stumble across this I will never know but it is an amazing spot 🤣
A little at what we’ve been up to.. first attempt at making our own juice 🍎..
What it doesn’t show is my children chopped the apples beautifully and then we realised we had to mush them all to a pulp!
So had to take them all back out, mush and pop back in! Worked a treat in the end ✨
@applecharlottecakes your pears are next 🍐
Gentle mornings by the harbour with a coffee - the best way to start the day ✨
Scotland’s resilience - the way everything is in sync with nature and is totally built on the elements is captivating.
The most photographed viaduct in the history of viaducts 😂…
Our Harry Potter loving 9 year old was in her element with imagination running wild about how they could have filmed things here…
We didn’t quite do our research and just rocked up, didn’t check any train times and thought it was in the middle of nowhere - it isn’t.
However we were lucky enough to just pull up as the Jacobite (Hogwarts) express went over - so saw it from the car park 😂.
What I want to know is - how as a location scout do you happen to know or find out about places like this before they’re famous 🤔 - what a job!
The best view is not always from the top ⛰…
Day 3 of 10 on a campsite where there are people in hammocks up in trees, cooking on open fires and wild swimming in rivers…
Determined to unwind and shake off the worries of the last 18 months - the scenery is beyond beautiful 💙
A few highlights from our recent visit to @ntbeningbrough - the bees were in ABUNDANCE on the wild flowers.
Anywhere with a decent coffee + walled garden & glass house + gorgeous woodland play area for children gets my vote 🙋🏼♀️
Dealing with HIGH levels of excitement + the heat for the last week of term and last ever day at nursery for my littlest - armfuls of old books were brought home today in preparation for water fights and non uniform day at school - I remember those heady days well, when you literally did no work for the last week, usually involving sports day and then allowed to bring in mousetrap or dreamphone!!
Holding out hope we don’t get the dreaded call 😷📞and make it through the last two days…
And I remembered teacher presents this year - who even am I?
The garden that keeps on giving today’s treasure from the allotment, we’ve finally managed to get a pepper from the green house too 🫑 …
Literally love that even though it’s just a rectangle we all seem to find our own <-space-> to dig around when we’re there. The children have been mesmerised watching things grow, harvest and then eating them. (Getting celeriac in them has been a highlight!!)
I’ve heard on the grapevine that someone wants to kick children off the plots which astounds me and makes me really sad I mean jeez louise - surely it’s better for them to be getting dirty in nature and learning?!
We’ve had the allotment 3 years now and spent a lot of time here in lockdown, it was and still is our sanctuary so I really hope that doesn’t happen…
Off to eat my body weight in strawbs - with a meringue thrown in and make a list of winter veg we need to grow…
I am so excited to share this interview with @hannahwestonjewellery
I interviewed Hannah back in 2020 and so this has been a long time coming.
In her own words Hannah describes her beautiful contemporary jewellery as “thoughtful, little pieces of joy made with intention and a celebration of our connections as humans”…
Read the full interview on the journal now live via the link 👆🏻
Throw back to the first time we saw my parents after lockdown and my dad had spent the whole time drawing and making a story book about a Panda called Emic for the children 😭…
What an heirloom!
Last year already feels like a lifetime ago yet we’re still in it 😷and working through it - anyone else feel like that?
Jobs for July…
> Pull on my big girl pants, go to London on my own & see the million things I want to see and be inspired
> Eat my body weight in strawberry jam as we have an abundance of strawbs from the allotment
> Figure out how to pay my next tax bill 😬🙈
> Find some new podcasts to listen to…
🎤Any podcast recommendations greatly received 🙏🏻 👇🏻👇🏻
A moment in the life ✌🏻…
Wellies HQ featuring a few of my favourite things in the office…
(not going to lie tried to write captions and screwed it up 5billion times so what it would have said was…)
> my fave print of painting ‘Bleach’ by @jessicaandertondesigns shortlisted contemporary artist of the year 2019 which just brightens the space
> @pecksniffsengland gorgeous candle that I regularly give a sniff to keep me calm
> shameless plug and bit of chocolate testing for a client 🍫
> new print in homage to my hometown of Sheffield by @coloursofsheffield which I LOVE
Acoustic heaven @ntfountainsabbey …
Happy #nationalfreelancersday pals ✌🏻because apparently now that’s a thing…
In all seriousness it’s bloomin hard sometimes running a bizo, especially in the last year so if you’re doing it and you’ve got through it 🙌🏻 , if you’re thinking about doing it - DO IT 💥.. (I wrote a blog post on why freelancers are so great if you’re interested on my website)…
I’ve been freelance now for 4 years and always learning but I’m so glad I did it.
I went back to a new job in a Mitchelin starred restaurant after my second child, came home one evening to find my eldest sat on her own eating tea whilst Paul bathed the baby and it’s only a small thing but it broke me. That’s not the way it’s meant to be - me returning home frazzled, him trying to do all.the.stuff and her sat alone. She should not remember that as her childhood.
and from that a business that had been a side hustle became a full time business 💙.
So I’m here for the celebration of freelancers 🍸
Ps. my hair is no longer brown or this short I think I need some new shots soon 😂
Would love to dip my feet in the cooling Cascade right about now? Anyone else?
We seem to have accumulated three paddling pools that are all varying sizes but non bigger than a large bucket 🤷🏼♀️… you know that frantic “oh gawd it’s too hot to go anywhere and we need somewhere other than the washing up bowl for children to play in” … run to the nearest shop don’t actually look at sizing and grab what’s left… yeah that’s us every.single.time. 🥣💧
Friday night dinner set up?!
Won’t forget seeing Alan Rickman and Kate Winslet dancing on set in “a little chaos” in this room and then I held the door open for them 😁 - film was pretty pants but that’s a minor detail isn’t it?
It’s also this room that’s featured in Bond’s never say never again…
Ever been on a film set or an extra?
Summertime in York ☀️...
(Will last approx 1 week!!)
Gothic style, Skeldergate Bridge linking the York Castle area to Bishophill.
Once opening to admit tall masted ships to the quays on either side of the river for York’s merchants exporting wool, grain and cloth to Northern Europe and importing luxury items from overseas, such as olive oil, figs and raisins from Spain.🍇
May ~ full of surprises ⚡️... mostly in a good way...
I’ve just pressed submit on another assignment before the weekend and...
Not least because we nailed another wedding shoot - even though I said I’d never do another 😅...
Here’s to growth, pals and being able to DO creative stuff again..
Happy Bank Holiday my lovely friends 🍸
Florals @dittanyentwined
Neon @typicaltypeuk
Off down to Norfolk for work for a few days and I could not be more excited - I haven’t been since last August so it’s long overdue!
Made it to @houghton_walled_garden last time and off to see @blicklingnt this time and to visit my fave shop @nelledk .
Prepping for heavy rain but hoping for lots of delicious Norfolk light and big skies regardless. 🌧
Charity by Damien Hirst - I can’t decide what I think of it, I’m on the fence.
Damien Hirst - a controversial character by all means.
> Is it a symbol of how far we’ve come or is it a sign that we still have much further to go because to spark discussions (for some) a sculpture is central to this?
> Is objectifying a disability for people to take selfies next to, the right thing to do?
> Is it a true representation of British high streets between the 1960s and 1970s?
‘Charity’ is a 22-foot bronze sculpture, slightly scuffed with her money robbed. Her collection box has been broken into with a crowbar, which lies at her feet next to a few remaining coins.
Can ‘Blue Wednesdays’ be a thing as I missed Monday although some people might not see this post until Monday anyway 🤔...
Think this may need to be our “thing” ... posing at beautiful historic places pretending like we own the gaff and wistfully staring into the distance 🤣...#thingswemakeourkidsdo
Hope you’re all having a lovely bank holiday - we’re off to do a spot of exploring near York today hoping the weather holds out...
How grand does the new Palladian Bridge in Capability Brown's landscape @scampston look 🏛...
Ooof not sure if I’m coming or going this week, things seem to have been steady as she goes for so long and now things are RAMPING up... visiting places again has been so needed.
Caught up with my best girls at the start of the week which has literally made my heart glow for the rest of the week 🧡 too.
Reeeeally fancying a trip to the sea this weekend but just know it will be rammed so might have to settle for the blue of a paddling pool in the garden 🌊
SO many inspiring conversations with friends this week about collaborations we are plotting lockdown has really made me think about who and why I want connections with, my head is buzzing but for now it’s wine Friday 🍷 so tell me your plans - paddling pool?
My background and upbringing was a privileged one.
My position now is privileged.
I don’t have the answers but I have my privilege to challenge the organisations and institutions (in particular the museums) that I work with, that came out with statements a year ago in support of Black Lives Matter.
Keep doing the work, to have diverse voices, champion equality and keep conversations going because representation is a huge problem.
My children need to know that the spaces and places we take them to, to make memories, are fair and equal spaces, we need to keep their eyes always firmly open to the world.
Monday ~ welcoming in a new week with fresh eyes, what a difference being able to visit places makes.
I’m inspired, fired up and open for new things 🙌🏻... my youngest is off to school for a trial in the nursery today - his uniform 💔...
Here’s hoping you had a sunshine filled weekend, saw friends or family and managed to explore a little too...
It’s like when you walk past the double doors that lead to the staff room in M&S where you worked when you were 18.
You remember every nook and have a slight inner magical knowledge that other visitors don’t know, have you ever done that?
It hasn’t changed a bit, yet it’s changed beyond recognition, probably spent the first half of my life here - visiting, then working, meeting Paul here, living on the Estate, attending the Dowagers funeral, making some of our best friends here.
A cold and snowy day @chatsworthofficial yesterday bumping into some old faces - still as majestic as ever and reminding me why I work in Heritage, Arts and culture 💙
Throw back pic to last year exploring Conwy and North Wales which we LOVED, itching to go back as we did a whistle stop tour in 4 days...
So many beautiful castles, beaches and independents to explore it’s on the list of places to visit again when we can 🏴
A day of reflection...
A year on from the point we all thought it would just be for a few weeks.. it’s odd we’ve come nowhere yet we’ve come so far?!
Tried to spend the day recapping ALL the things we’ve done and achieved (watched 👀) in the last year rather than being sad about what we’ve missed out on.
Our personal biggest achievement = making decisions around our work that have been life changing✨
Tell me one thing you’ve achieved big or small?
Today’s affirmation spotted on a lamppost near me 😃...
Facing North ⚓️.
Port Mulgrave 2020
Celebrating women’s history month and the beginning of spring 🙌🏻 - I love this depiction of the country by self taught artist Mary Newcomb, the way the blooms are larger than life and the pop of pink! It feels like it would be at the height of spring with flowers in full bloom.
I REALLY wish I could paint, my dad is an amazing artist, the sort that just does a brushstroke and looks amazing - if I did, it would be of everyday life things in my surroundings like Mary did or of things that seemed insignificant at the time. Her art lay in the rhythms of nature and the rituals of rural life - in her chickens, guinea fowl and, best of all, sheep, in village fetes and country shows, or in incidents glimpsed as she travelled on the bus, or walked or bicycled.
“I wanted… to remind ourselves that – in our haste – in this century – we may not give time to pause and look – and may pass on our way unheeding”.
Mary Newcomb writing on her work in 1986.
Known through preference as a ‘country artist’ rather than a folk artist, a new exhibition is preparing to open @compton_verney this year celebrating Mary’s work. Self-taught she never followed conventional rules of proportion and perspective but captured the countryside world where she lived beautifully, observing occurrences intently then translating them into evocative paintings.
If ever there was an accolade “Pier of the year” is surely a goodie?!
A year since we first discovered Saltburn...
Seaside piers ooze the Victorian era with their iconic engineering and entrepreneurship.
Saltburn’s pier was the first iron pier to be built on the North East Coast, and is the most northerly surviving British Pier and the only remaining pleasure pier on the North East coast. Built in an exposed position and facing due north into the cruel and unforgiving North Sea, the history of this particular Pier tells a tale of survival against the elements!
Hit by severe storms, gales and a ship carrying China clay it’s now a Grade II* listed building , won a top placing in the Queen’s Golden Jubilee Heritage awards and that incredible accolade “pier of the year.”
Today it’s been greatly enhanced by the installation of under deck lighting which illuminates at night and this year will celebrate its 152nd year!
I am itching to return to the sea.
Haven’t we?
Still a few sticky areas but more HOPE than ever before, something to actually hold on to, which we all so needed after this most recent lockdown.
🙌🏻 to the road of hope.
Grappling with being an immigrant in the UK and a drive to find inner self worth, ceramic artist @jennychanartworks states her series "Divas" was originally inspired by Kim Kardashians bottom and the BBC's 100 Women! Two very different spectrums!
It’s always fascinating to understand motivation and an artists influences for inspiration...
With influences from famous people, such as @alanmeasles entwined with imaginary characters Jenny’s work proves that with inner determination you can channel your focus to fuel positive creativity...
"Not in wildest dreams did I think that I would be in the creative industry. I started my clay journey in 2014 during a very difficult time in my life. I am mostly self-taught from watching hours of YouTube. I found clay gave me focus, peace and fulfilment, the ideal distraction for relieving anxiety away from life difficulties and isolation as a new immigrant in the UK.”
Read the full interview with Jenny on the journal *link in bio*
It all boils down to a Welly Walk! 👣
My daughter asked me again yesterday why my business is called what it’s called and I realised I haven’t piped up about it for a while!
As a family we love going for a good old ‘Welly Walk’ 👆🏻with our pooch whippet Woody, (usually ending in an off the beaten track adventure!) The market town we call home is known for its 200-year-old brass band, the moors are known for wild heather, sweeping dales and picture perfect views - they are all however not known for being wi-fi hotspots!
Wrangling for signal in the early days on an off road Welly Walk adventure was how the name “Wellies & Wifi” came to fruition.
Much as I will reminisce about teenage years spent in Topshop it is so time to focus on the small but mighty businesses that are managing to stay afloat.
Since the likes of boohoo et al have snapped up high street shops - I’m here for @historicengland latest cultural campaign - shining a lil’ light on independents 🙌🏻 and the ordinary.
Working across 68 towns the campaign will work with artists and creatives to celebrate & showcase high streets and their communities. Co-created with locals and delivered by artists across four years.
A whopping £95mil is being pumped into areas to bring back, transform and restore disused and dilapidated buildings, bringing back a sense of community and local historic character.
The project will focus on stories which capture the everyday magic of the high street, the Future of the High Street; and a photography project to creatively document the changing face of the nation’s high street.
Here’s hoping they don’t get rid of the true grit of places like the recent removal of graffiti at Sheffield’s Park Hill development!
My list of inspiring places to visit is getting longer by the day! Any more suggestions always welcome! To name a few 👇🏻
@museelapiscine - this place is just 😍
@louisianamuseum full of Scandi modern art in Copenhagen, because the city is one of my most favourite places in the world and we missed loads of stuff last time we were there!
@rbgedinburgh to go in THAT glasshouse!
@jupiterartland = sculpture + inspiring landscapes
@barconventyork for that secret chapel - who knew this was right on my doorstep!
@hauserwirthsomerset has been on the list for an age...
Graffiti - Urban art or vandalism?
On the most part it’s a voice, a way of expression isn’t it? It’s also representation.
Jason Lowe’s actual graffiti marriage proposal on Park Hill Flats has this week been removed - which is a SIN!! The proposal had become an iconic piece of Heritage, an artwork in its own right and a symbol in my beloved home city of Sheffield.
A representation of the past & the future - developers of the flats Urban Splash recently used the slogan in their marketing campaigns highlighting it in neons to sell the dream of regeneration in the City.... they’re also the ones that have removed it.
Park Hill Flats was one of the most ambitious public housing projects in post-war Britain. Brutalist in design - a stark style of functional architecture characterised by steel and concrete blocks and HIGHLY controversial. Many people felt it was less of a gateway to the city but more the entrance to some sort of Soviet era housing complex.
Now parts of it are Grade II listed endorsed by English Heritage not only because of the architectural importance but because of its significance to communities. The views over the city are brilliant as are the new trendy apartments located within it - just now minus iconic artwork 😭
‘Anchored in Staithes’ by @art_katesmith ...
Love Kate’s vibrant depiction of the Yorkshire coast, my interview with her now live on the journal *link in bio*...
“Using photography taken very early in the morning when the light source is at it’s brightest and the colours are at there most extreme. From then on I began to also develop an impasto style of paint application, using a palette knife and sculpting the paint onto the canvas.”
Next time someone questions your rate!
You are an expert in your field, stop giving time away for free...
This is something I am massively working on this year.
From photographers to virtual assistants it’s unlikely anyone has a full team that has the expertise nailed all the time otherwise they wouldn’t have reached out to you.
You’re more likely to be motivated to do an excellent job and deliver results, often under pressure and to tight deadlines. Not because you’re superhuman, but because that’s how we earn our bread and butter. Plus in general people that start their own business and become freelancers tend to air on the side of being highly self-motivated anyway.💪🏻
Don’t let that imposter syndrome creep in - your expertise is highly specialised and should be nurtured.
Wallpaper laced with arsenic to get the perfect shade of gold.
Mock Indian paper from 1767, full drawing room coverage will set you back £16...
When though? When will they go on 😢...
Last year we visited Buxton and we are defo going back when we can to stay at the new Crescent Hotel.
I never realised how beautiful @buxtonoperahouse is... Art Deco in style with an interesting past it was built in 1903 by the same chap, Frank, who famously built The London Palladium (host of the Royal Variety Show).
Home to theatre, then a cinema and then more theatre in 1976 the Opera House closed, fell into disrepair and rumours it would never reopen were rife..
John Betjeman notably met campaigners wishing to save it back in the day - perhaps on one of his many visits to the Devonshire’s at nearby Chatsworth.
Between 1979-2007 the theatre thankfully did reopen and over the years has seen major revamps and upgrades to include an orchestra pit, new backstage lighting and air conditioning...
The complex today also includes the adjacent Victorian Pavilion, with an Arts Centre and an auditorium. Hosting over 400 performances a year including the warm up for Edinburgh - Buxtons Fringe Festival claims to be the largest “true” Fringe in the UK.
Marc Almond and Boy George have donned the stage and the Opeta House took the crown for most welcoming theatre in the East Mids!
I cannot wait to be back in beautiful buildings in the world of theatre 💙
Missing (since circa March 2020) - capturing tiny pieces of history in amazing places ...
But also pretty pleased with how long my hair is since this pic was taken a year ago!
Lockdown 3.0 epitomised...
💥snacks + no personal space
Coexisting around food this lockdown anyone else?
Literally all our conversations are around planning meals it’s like being in I’m a Celeb minus the company, but each day is like facing a trial you just don’t know what each day will be like but you need some sort of control/routine and meals seem to provide that ...
Although we are being wayyyyy more mindful about what we eat and limiting drinking to 1 night at the weekends 😱
Hope you’re all staying sane and when in doubt healthy meal plan...
Last week vs this week ❄️
Getting out daily is our tonic everyone is in such a better headspace after fresh air...
Didn’t wear make up today for the first time since approx 1990 - Paul’s response...
You look nice but also like you’re in mourning...
THANKS pal, or maybe I am 😭 for life as we knew it...
To the weekend >>>>> 🍸🍷
Inner magic is the cog that powers you!
I’ve helped a few people recently go right back to basics - to find their inner story.
That magic element that’s part of the vision underpinning everything you / I / they do - we all have it - it’s usually something forgotten about or something thought to be not relevant.
But. it. is.
Lockdown & the pandemic swirling thoughts are super draining, magic can get diluted, wiped out and it’s easy to forget why you began and where you want to go.
Wiggling that magic out is the best bit - it will set you alive again - captivating hearts (yours and your audiences).
If you’re struggling right now and would like some gentle guidance or a quick wiggling of magic session - my email and DMs are always open ✨
From snow to sea and back again - Christmas Day 2020 ❄️
Hope you’ve all enjoyed some quiet time, thinking of those alone or with someone missing this year 💔.
Lego + slowing down seems to have landed well in our house and the biggest question - why are pigs in blankets way more tasty than just bacon and sausage separately?
Out of office people - I see you 👀 and wish I was you...
There is always something when your freelance and I know, I know, I need to walk away from it at some point - whilst I’m organised, I’m just not that person yet that can bang the out of office on for 2 weeks....
so those of you that can I salute you 🙋🏼♀️
There are three things I love about tonight ...
✨Stately home light trails are pure JOY
✨Being able to actually work with real people is JOYFUL
✨Outdoor Light Trails can go ahead whatever the tier so people can connect with art and nature - enJOYment
Paddington travels ~| Waddesdon Manor 2014
Our Paddington has a penchant for Christmas at stately homes, he’s accompanying me on a work trip at the moment!
Marketing - the word oozes connotations of pushy sales, unethical techniques and techy jargon (just me?!)
I REALLY hate the word marketing ~ I used to tell people I was “in marketing” and you could see them scouting for the nearest exit.
Pretty sure its why “marketing your business” just feels like a massive hill to climb. It’s that word.
When you get the trusty old dictionary out - I love what happens when you replace the pushy unethical jargon...
Words for Marketing -
✨ Amplify
✨ To Grow
✨ Informative
✨ Interacting
✨ Connecting
✨ Developing
✨ An Exchange
Words for Promotion -
✨ Champion
✨ Encouragement
✨ Support
✨ Development
✨ Furthering
✨ Endorsement
If you gently swap any of these into a sentence it just adds far more sparkle and feels proactive rather than oppressive!
Bin the word “marketing” - it changes the dynamic instantly and will raise you up when you take that oppression out of your business.
Throw back to when I was part of the team promoting this outdoor art installation, had to use the family as promo and got featured in the Guardian. Beacon 👆🏻is made from plastic bottles lit from the inside, originally made with the aim of sending a message of hope to cancer suffers & survivors.
Cultural and creative sectors have been trashed in 2020 - years worth of planning for exhibitions, events, collections being put on hold or worse binned.
I am really lucky to be working with a number of cultural & historic places that can provide outdoor festivities still this year, despite the restrictions but more than ever they need our public support even if you’re unable to visit - just an online comment or share can be invaluable.
Large public & private cultural institutions and businesses depend on a dynamic ecosystem made up of creative professionals from cafe baristas, actresses & dancers to art restorers & curators, in order to provide their provision of goods and services. The heavy load on the upkeep of objects, places, spaces and that professional ecosystem is BIG.
If you are able to and feel comfortable to - visit a local cultural space, outdoor Christmas light trail, share online Carol concerts and digital content - choose experiences & memories over unnecessary stuff this year and guaranteed...everyone including you will feel the benefit #HelpFundTheArts
Do you know what your story is yet?
It’s in there!
It’s part of the vision that underpins everything you do.
Get it right and it will capture hearts and take those people on your creative journey with you.
Wiggling out your magic is the part that makes me giddy, it’s usually something that you might not even think about or something you think is not relevant but it is and it’s in there.
Those fascinating parts that will captivate your people old and new.
Once you start putting your story out into the world in a way that’s authentic to you, something magical happens.
People start to lean in and listen.
If you’re struggling right now and would like some gentle guidance or just another ear to bounce ideas off - my email and DMs are always open ✨
📸 by talented @lauracarlyadams
Today has been the Mondayest of all Mondays - with Christmas being fully embraced by most of my businesses - I’m so not ready for it yet!
So sharing this from yesterday, one of my favourite places on our coast - Saltburn.
A previous hub for smugglers Saltburn has a Grade II* listed renovated pier - the only pleasure pier on the whole of the North East and Yorkshire Coast - which was fresh yesterday 🥶, fishermen on the end of it were brave!
It’s also home to the oldest water balance cliff lift in the UK - opened in 1884, sadly closed yesterday due to rona but we’ve been on it many times - it has the most beautiful Art Deco windows!
Saltburn has a real vibe to it with some brilliant indie shops, the waves are surfing heaven and the Sitting room cafe do a pretty brilliant Ameretto hot chocolate!
Chicken soup for the soul - Lockdown walks 2.0 - inspiration on the doorstep colours are like something from a Turner painting ~ feeling very lucky mainly that we can root our children in this.
AND the First Lady VP is here 🙌🏻
Fireplace goals - or should I say “chimney piece, attributed to Nicolas Stone an English sculptor & architect, depicting cupids, satyrs, gods and goddesses.
Found in the dining room of a Yorkshire country house estate - that is allegedly the final resting place of Oliver Cromwell (minus his head!)
Many moons ago Cromwells daughter married a Fauconberg who’s family seat was at Newburgh Priory.
The remains of Olly C were apparently hidden in the rafters, in a stone tomb that has never been opened and, according to tradition, must never be - meaning the corpse's identity cannot be verified and the mystery continues....
If ever I lived by the sea a house named “Kipper” painted blush would surely do?
I’ve been in a funk.
I think I’m out of my funk.
I’ve done two things toward it - stop unintentionally listening to the news and unfollowing shouty people telling me what I SHOULD be doing with my business.
Side note: My grandparents had a cat named Kipper and that pampas is dubious 😳
Delving more into my MA this week and being a study history geek - first module is all around Heritage and theories around what it actually is.
Thinking of my own links with Heritage in the broadest of terms - it only really skims the surface. I’m curious as to what Heritage signifies to you?
Is it a place you identify with?
Something of specific historical interest? Objects? Cultures?
English Heritage defines Heritage as four values which seemingly favour Tourism...
Evidential - the potential of a place to yield evidence about past human activity.
Historical - the ways in which past people, events and aspects of life can be connected through a place to the present.
Aesthetic - the ways in which people draw sensory and intellectual stimulation from a place.
Communal - the meanings of a place for the people who relate to it, or for whom it figures in their collective experience.
Hit me with your Heritage Hypothesis 🤪...
Setting intentions for the week - Mondays are pretty much a “clearing the deck” day, anything that didn’t get done the week before, from the weekend and sorting out the week ahead.
Last week was completely hijacked by the new gov guidelines being dropped - one of my businesses is massively affected by it so spent the week navigating the right comms to give to 7000 people 🙈.
I also absolutely need to force myself to get my tax return done as I’ve been putting it off for weeks and I know it will be a weight lifted once I’ve done it!
Log burner is a cert today as well as there’s an Autumn nip in the air - no doubt Woody will muscle his way in front of the fire too!
🤞🏻 for no more announcements and hope you’re all keeping ok with all this uncertainty hanging over us.
📸@lauracarlyadams
Port Mulgrave is nestled a few miles up the coast from popular Whitby. The route down is not for the faint hearted although I’ve just been reading that the former route involved ropes & amateur abseiling as the original path is now a pile of rocks at the bottom of the cliff 😬
Built as a port in 1857 by Sir Charles Palmer industrialist and MP to serve a new seaside ironstone mine and renamed after a local landowner - the Earl of Mulgrave.
The whole place is eery - a bricked up tunnel entrance to the old steam-driven railway is visible in the hillside. The port was abandoned & left to decay, and even partly blown up by Royal Engineers to thwart any cheeky attempts of German landing craft to use it during World War 2.
One of the most fascinating things is the isolated fishing community and their personalised huts - made from washing machine drums, old lobster pots, ropes, sticks and other washed up forgotten detritus.
It had the same feeling as that of the Stanton treetop camp in Derbyshire (look it up) where you feel in awe of the resourcefulness, angry at the mess, apprehensive of your own presence and inferior that they can live such a primitive life.
The whole cove is littered with ammonite fossils and apparently dino & reptile ones too!
Not sure we will be dashing back as fascinating as it was - (and I went arse over tit in the mud trying to scramble back up🙈)
Made a trip to @yspsculpture to see Joana Vasconcelos. After seeing her previous pieces at my old work, Waddesdon Manor, both in exhibitions & permanent commissions - I couldn’t miss a collection of her work whilst she’s in the North! If you get chance go see it - kids can run free, it’s covid safe and coffee & cake is decent, it’s one of our faves!
Joana Vasconcelos’ was the first female & youngest artist to have a major solo exhibition at the Palace of Versailles (first female! not all that long ago only in 2012), and at the Bilbao Guggenheim Museum, she was the first Portuguese artist to present a solo exhibition. Joana uses items associated with domestic work and craft to comment from a feminist perspective on national and collective identity, cultural tradition and women’s roles in society.
Two impressive pieces today were:
Solitário [Solitaire] - a seven-metre-high ring made from golden car wheel rims topped with a huge diamond crafted from crystal whisky glasses. Representing the stereotypical ambition of society to acquire wealth and material possessions, this particular piece unites symbols of luxury – cars, jewellery and alcohol – which bridge social classes.
“Marilyn” was incredible - made from stainless-steel saucepans, the iconic oversized stilettos pay homage to Marilyn Monroe drawing focus to social conventions, highlighting the division between women’s traditional domestic and contemporary public roles. The stilettos (Marilyn) propose a revision of femininity by drawing attention to contrasts such as private versus public life, tradition versus modernity, and ‘pop’ culture versus ‘high’ culture.
Balancing - I’ve spoken to quite a few people this week who are just feeling totally overwhelmed, with the juggling act of running their own business, mostly the overwhelm of social media, the pressure to post and be relevant when all they want to do is be IN their creative business not faff on with all the STUFF.
Particularly as platforms keep rolling out new shiz we need to try and keep up with (or not!) reels, stories, Facebook creator, Facebook business suite et al...
I get it, social media takes up valuable time, the algorithm can be an arse.
Overwhelm often manifests when we are at a cross roads and when it’s all getting too much it’s time to step off that path for an hour, a day, a week however long to work out how to continue, to get back the magic of why you want to connect and where you want to go.
Break it down into smaller chunks you don’t need to do everything all at once and you don’t need to show up as justification you are running a business. Show up because you want to and it feels right.
If all else fails head for a garden, green space or the sea - guaranteed to make you feel less of the overwhelm 🌿
Sad not to be curling up in @weareherenow beautiful cosy Norfolk home this evening but fully preparing for treacherous downpours and to batten down the hatches in Yorkshire instead 😫
I’ve been away working on various amazing projects but this weekend it’s a quiet one catching up on life admin - i.e tackling the massive pile of ironing and looking at my extensive reading list for my course that starts next week...
Or maybe for tonight it will be wine and reruns of Motherland...
Wishing you dry galoshes and a happy weekend ☔️
When old meets new - epitome of Juxtaposition (what a word!) @anish.kapoor @houghton_hall
One thing I love is seeing modern creations brought to life in historical spaces - it brings a new dimension to both things 💙
Passage to the moors...
This time last year 😫 a truly motivating and memorable day at the Congregation of Inspiration with @hollytucker - it was a moment.
Listening to many variations of how people have approached starting and running their businesses, how risk & failure are ultimately our success stories but above all the common theme...
If you’re thinking of taking that leap of faith - to just bluddy DO IT.
If this covid year has taught us one thing, it’s to sift through the trash, dump negativity and things that do not make you happy.
Go back to basics and think about what truly makes you tick, not about what you “should” be doing or “ought” to. I’m not talking about throwing complete caution to the wind (unless that works for you!) but make plans, begin to set those wheels in motion.
Be proactive not reactive in reaching where you want to be.
And if you’re still doubtful I urge you to go to the next Congregation whenever that can happen (although let me get my ticket first) 🤞🏻
Ps - Holly if you can just come back up North we’d all be really grateful 🙏🏻
Not sure if I’m coming or going this week...
Working on two styled shoots plus a commercial shoot and shaping 2021 plans with all my lovely clients - covering what another “covid year” looks like and what a “non covid year” could look like.
It’s so devastating to think we have to plan for it but ultimately to be able to survive plans have to be flexible, creative in parts and at times ready to diversify at the drop of a hat.
If you’re struggling to think of a way forward business or otherwise I’m always here to mull things over with 💙
Superconnecting - what is it?
The simple definition is someone who builds a network, but not for their own direct use. Instead, they focus on putting people within their network together. They make introductions, in the hope that they can connect others to benefit one another.
This is something I absolutely love to do it gives me the greatest satisfaction to see collaborations come alive and grow.
This time last year I was helping @theenterprisecollective organise an event @newburghpriory. It was a pleasure to be involved in the event with over 120 creative businesses attending to listen to @me_and_orla chat.
I also met some hugely talented people who I’d like to now think of as friends at the event @hareandhowl @bytomw and @elizabet.hbrown I’m looking at you...
It was a pretty decent connect 😊 Here’s to more superconnecting be that virtual (cheers rona) or in person 🥂
“I’ve learned how to be in the present.”
“How?” Asked the boy.
“I find a quiet spot and shut my eyes and breathe.”
May we all find a quiet spot this weekend.
Sprocket brightens my mornings daily - his creator @sarahwestwood_artist is superbly talented, drawing freehand with only her finger on an iPad Pro.
Created in a homage to Sarah’s old Weimaraner, Sprocket has many adventures with his pals in wondrous places. My children also love him 💙
I interviewed Sarah - read how she gets her inspiration, which other artists she champions and where you can find her next over on the journal - *link in bio*
Ps - if you sign up for my newsletter you get first look access to lots of creative interviews - sign up via the website too 😊
Adding castles to the list of places I want to work with 🏰 although this one is decidedly eery & sad but fascinating...
Built in 1849 by a construction worker for the harbour, the house is known as soldiers point and sits on the headland - with a chequered history, notably in 1918 the house’s owner was charged with hoarding food including rice, jam and sugar. The charges were dropped after he explained that wounded soldiers were treated to tea every Sunday.
It’s been a hotel and latterly was a shelter for homeless people before being engulfed in a fire that raged for 7 hours.
It now stands motionless, crumbling and so sad, apparently amidst a regeneration development plan that has been in planning since 2011.
