I have enjoyed creating art all my life. While writing poetry became more of a focus during my university years, the past few years have brought me back to drawing, painting, and crafting. I enjoy trying new things, and don’t pressure myself too much to make things too realistic or too perfect. For me, inspiration comes from nature and the seasons, and I enjoy creating things that are either colourful and whimsical, or use items from nature to create precious pieces to hold and display.
However, I do not have a lot of time to be creative, and I find inspiration and motivation to be very elusive. My creative projects and the artistic mediums I use change all the time, depending on what I have time for and what appeals most to me in that moment. You can have a look through the various crafts I have tried in my brief portfolio and seasonal timeline below.
A brief portfolio
Seasonal Craft Projects
Particularly during the years of lockdown in 2020 and 2021, I found more time to be creative. Over that time I explored and discovered many ways to incorporate nature’s bounty into my craft, and experimented through the seasons with different methods and processes. I hope to do more of this in the future!
Spring 2021: I foraged violets to make a delicious violet syrup, as well as some other herbal concoctions. More here.
Winter/Spring 2021: I cast moss and lichen in resin, to create distinctive coasters and ornaments. More here.
Winter 2020: I coated pine cones in wax to create natural firelighters, or braskotten. More here.
Summer 2020: I picked leaves and printed them onto fabric through the process of hapa zome. More here.
Spring 2020: I dried out rose petals and ground them down to create a unique painting pigment. More here.
Nellie Cole 