Stitching is a very meditative process and when I look at a completed piece I can remember exactly what I listened to and where I stitched it. When you are stitching it really is impossible to think about anything else, the music and place slip in but concentrating on the work means I am able to take a break from everything going on around me.

The exhibition at Coffin Works will include stitching sessions, we will follow a simple pattern choosing colours that are dear to you or those that have died and create a really unique piece of work for display on your lapel or to get framed for your wall at home. The sessions will last for around 90 minutes and whether we have music or not I really hope that the memory of making will be one you will treasure.

The exhibition opens on 4th May and the following week (9th - 15th May) is Dying Matters Awareness Week which this year is promoting talking and listening about bereavement,death and dying with their theme "The Big Conversation". Do take a look at their page which is full of information and care.

Tapestry Needlepoint Art

I am a tapestry needlepoint artist and will be using this page in 2016 to promote my solo exhibition "7 Stages of Grief" which will open at The Coffin Works in Birmingham in May and then travel down to the National Needlework Archive at the beginning of August.

Being from Birmingham, the city of 1000 trades, I am surrounded by people making what we need and then fixing what is broken, we get on with things here, we follow processes. That cannot be said of grief.

Grief is not a straight path, a race or a tick list but as a maker driven by process and rules investigating the 7 stages of grief has helped me to understand and accept that not everything that is broken can be totally fixed we just have to take more time to make it work. 

I will be adding more details about this exhibition, the workshops and seminars that will run alongside it in the coming weeks and months.