Nellie Cole

Folkdays: Violets

A spring bloom I’ve been really drawn to this year is violets. A few months ago, I would have struggled to identify these plant from any other purple flowers I spotted in a verge. But now I know what to look for, I am spotting them everywhere!

Recently, I have had a go at foraging these flowers, and crafting them into a sweet violet syrup. It’s also been a while since I’ve written a Folkdays post, so I will be combining the process I followed with the folklore of these flowers in this post.

underGROWTH: Doctrine of Signatures

A wonderful milestone was reached in my residency for the underGROWTH project. The zine I have been creating has been sent to the printers, the proof has been approved, and soon I will be receiving a small print run through the post! I’ve enjoyed every moment as this project has come together: from the research, to painting the illustrations and having conversations, to writing the small number of new poems which will appear in the zine. This last aspect will be focus of today’s blog post.

Scrapbook: Page 5 (The Lost Page)

Here is an (overlooked) page for my virtual scrapbook: one I had drafted but forgotten to post! A round up of moments from a month or so ago. Look out for a more up-to-date scrapbook page soon.

underGROWTH: Creating a Zine

I’ve had a busy few weeks, but my project for underGROWTH is coming along apace! In my last post, I wrote about the research process: reading, amongst other things, Robin Wall Kimmerer’s Gathering Moss, and learning to see through ‘moss coloured glasses’. In this post, I’m going to focus on the content creation for the zine: taking photographs, making illustrations, and conducting interviews.

A Platform for Poetry

I am delighted to share that I am going to be a part of an exciting new poetry project. ‘People’s Poetry on the Shakespeare Line’ is organised by Black Country collective Poets, Prattlers and Pandemonialists, in partnership with West Midlands Railway. Eighteen poets, including myself, have been commissioned to write poems for each of the stations between Birmingham Moor Street and Stratford-upon-Avon Stations – a route known as the Shakespeare Line.

underGROWTH: ‘Moss Coloured Glasses’

As I have mentioned in my previous post, I am currently taking part in an eco-art residency with the underGROWTH project in Coventry. Over the next couple of months, I will be exploring the environment through an artistic lens, and creating work inspired by ecology. My portfolio will be focused on those beautiful, intricate organisms I have been so enthralled by recently: mosses and lichens.

My residency will conclude with the production of a final product – a booklet, exploring mosses and lichens through a variety of art forms and perspectives. As the booklet is brought to life, I thought it would be interesting to map my journey here, through a number of blog posts.

Blog: (Re)opening my own shop!

My little shop, Handmade by Nellie, has evolved! As sales of my greetings cards went so well last year, and my creative endeavours such as resin crafts are continuing, I have decided to move the shop to a new platform. My hope is that, by doing this, I can spend less time managing sales and more time creating new work! I also hope that I will reach new audiences, and become a (somewhat) more professional seller. Read more below!

Scrapbook: Page 4

Here is the next page in my virtual scrapbook: a round up of the last couple of weeks’ moments.

Blog: Moss and Lichen Crafts

It’s been a while since I’ve posted about my latest creative endeavours – but that’s not to say that they’ve stopped! For Christmas, I received a starter kit for resin art. For a while now, I’ve thought how lovely it would be to encapsulate nature’s treasures in resin, and preserve what might otherwise wilt or crumble. Read on to hear about my first foray into the world of resin art, and to see the ways nature has been inspiring me since the new year.

Folkdays: Snowdrops

It has been quite a tumultuous year since I wrote my Folkdays post on bluebells last May. At that time, I was adjusting to a new normal of being locked-down in a city, with only a few spots of nature to be found. Now, I have moved back home, to a place where nature abounds – and while I am looking forward to the spring and the arrival of the bluebells, I am also enjoying the sight of another early spring bloom: the snowdrop.

As heralds of the coming spring, I am sure snowdrops come with plenty of folklore: let’s explore, below.