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.