Me and what I do

What I say about me

I am an artist and author/illustrator. I come from Swedish, British, Indian grandparents and a few other nationalities thrown in for good measure. I currently live in Monmouth, Wales though I grew up in Lincolnshire and Scotland and spent my summers in Sweden. I come from a wonderful lineage. Celestine my great grandmother and her daughter Karin watch over me in the Shed. My mother Anne Karin is in my dexterity.

I identify as non- binary and prefer they/them pronouns to she/her but I don’t mind if you call me weasel.

I needle felt small creatures, make copper boats, moons, cast copper, bronze and silver charms from nature and tell stories, writing and illustration story books from my little shed studio.

I like to be outside and barefoot and I think I am part merperson and love to swim in the sea or the river near my house.

I share my home with my partner and more cats than some would consider decent and a lurcher called Lupin. I have one grown up child, author and illustrator Max Low who lives in the neighbouring town.

I have been making since I was old enough to pick something up, at my mother's knee and have never stopped since. I am also a bit of a clever clogs and love science and numbers. I did a degree in biochemistry and history of art and have always found a way to combine art and science. You don’t have to be not clever to do art! Though judging from that sentence, I never really grasped grammar and spelling.

I taught chemistry, history of art and crafts in a Steiner School for 20 years but now I use my teaching skills for stories, and workshops.

I reside in that liminal world of ‘between’ Our world is so binary, art or science, real or myth, male or female… I love the inbetween, that is where I am most happy, in myself as a mixed heritage non binary person and in my work combining art and science, and in my worlds I create where real meets fairy tale and folklore. I have a love of the magical worlds that exist just out of the corner of our eye, the idea that creatures are going about their every day business, watering their flowers, reading books in the woods, I have a wish to make people smile, to bring them some joy, some warmth of heart. A reminder that the magical world we inhabited as children is still there if we are quiet of heart and look for it. I grew up with tales of trolls and tomten, I adore folklore and that idea of magic, the clock striking 13, the garden appearing , I like to find magic in the everyday and the other, slightly unusual often forgotten or over looked. I struggled to fit in to the world as a child, I felt more animal or troll than person and not a girl or a boy. My own world is one where everyone is welcome, whoever and whatever they are. . Tinysaurs offer tea to plants that talk, weasels dance, badgers make a mean espresso which is why they are up at night. Lightbringers steadfastly walk the light to Spring, Smalls post their wishes in the wish boats to sail on the lake of dreams and rabbits collect wishing stars for the blue moon times.

I believe kindness is the most important thing of all, if you are kind then you can’t go wrong. My world is a gentle safe haven where we are kind and mischievous in equal measure.

I collaborate with textile artist Kathy Anderson. She sews and embroiders the most exquisite tiny accessories for my animals. Post bags and caps, tiny wish gatherer teddies and star gazing bags, seasonal bags for mice, tiny mittens and buckets for polar bears to sit in. Backdrops of stars and moons for clock case scenes and trees to decorate. Each season we have a collection of creatures with accessories.

Each creature I make has a unique character, charm of its own. I have a sense of fun and nostalgia and a love of the forgotten, small, passed over and missed things. I love folklore and stories of hidden worlds, that idea of small creatures living a life we could see if only we were quiet of heart enough to look. Being small and shy I've always cheered on the outsiders, the quiet ones. I collect natural materials from my local walks in Wales to make accessories for them. Nettles for shawls, brambles for baskets, birch bark to weave beds and baskets and plants to make tiny baskets and hats. Creatures of their place.

​Each copper boat , moon and charm I make has a whisper of the old times, folklore, hidden stories, moons and dreams, quite creatures who work steadfastly while we sleep. They link to the ancient wisdom of the seasons.

​I write and illustrate story books for all ages. Tales of small acts of kindness, hidden themes of friendship, kindness, acceptance, a gentle look at life which are published with Graffeg.

The Celestine and the Hare series feature a craft activity in the back of each book,

The Lightbringers (Winter) and The Wish Gatherers are the first two in a new series of seasonal folklore tales. Summer Book 3 will be published 2024.

I also make short stop motion animations of the creatures living in the shed with me and we dance a lot and eat a lot of choklit. The films and photos I post on you tube and my facebook page, twitter/instagram/tiktok where is a lot of silliness and joy and a gentleness of life.

Occasionally I am brave enough to contact a gallery or they found me round the back hanging out with the dogs and frogs.

My current ponderings:

The line I always say about Celestine and the Hare is kindness and mischief. I love that duality. I've always loved the middle ground found in opposites, I loved doing this and that, these and those. We as a species seem to like to pigeon hole and make people choose and tell them they have to be a scientist or an artist, silly or serious, girl or boy... you can't be both. I've always wanted to be both of everything or neither. Being clever and good at science I was discouraged from art and told to do science. I wanted to do both. I got my own way and studied science and art, even combining them in my degree. I love them both, I think they go together, they aren't opposite actually, just look at Leonardo. Study the Golden Mean, Islamic art and see how artists use science and maths.  I know that can get confusing sometimes and I know my mind jumps from one thing to another and I can't expect others to know what I'm thinking or what sphere it is coming from. 
Whilst I love this middle ground and love to switch, I do tend to get obsessed and lost in things. I am a melancholic and introverted, I get lost in an idea like entering a snail shell, spiralling in and in and find it hard to come back up for air. Sometimes when I am lost in dreams, like Panda, I find it hard to wake up out of that dream and you must always be gentle with dreamers...
I am currently lost in folklore creatures from the Celtic year, the quiet of heart hedge and woodland beings that we glimpse out of the corner of our eyes. Finding an obsession with a place and folklore. There are stories and creatures brewing. I am collecting treasure when on my walks and making moulds of them to cast with copper, clay for mugs for badgers and nettles, brambles, plants to make into cordage and baskets, hats and shawls. Seeds, feathers, leaves, they change as the earth turns and the seasons move through the year. I am loving the extra connection with nature. I am making creatures that are of their place. The Badger wears nettle shawl, gathered from the nettles that grow by the badger sett in the woods. Her basket is made from brambles and birch bark from there and her needle is made from an antler found nearby.
I have an idea to do with old myth and new myth, folklore. The Tales of the Turning year series are reflecting these new characters. It started with Winter and The Lightbringers. the first of a quartet of books for the seasons and animals to match. Followed by The Wish Gatherers, Autumn and I am now working on Summer!

I am also working with textile artist Kathy Anderson who walks the woods with me, and we are creating some collaborative pieces with her stitched and embroidered felt pieces. Post Mice delivering joys of woodland post, and seasonal bags, snowballing bemittened creatures and summer fab lollies and water wings to keep the duality of bright and fun too. New ideas, new gentle stories to touch your heart and soul will emerge and of course a lot of joy of dancing and weasel thievery too. Yes, you can have both and both and neither.

Take my hand and walk with me for a while, we shall dream beautiful ancient dreams and dance like weasels too.