I thought I’d share some work i n progress using leaves from [1] Westonbirt Arboretum and a couple of botanical gardens in Cornwall.

I’m always picking up bits and pieces wherever I go, a leaf here, a rusty cog there, its something I’ve done my whole life, and I find it very satisfying when they all come together to make artworks, like miniature versions of the world.

When I was a child I had loads of collections - feathers, fossils, matchboxes and coins, crystals and seedpods, like my own private museum.

[2]

These days I still gather them and dot them about my house or stitch and bind them together, but I’m also working with and for museums, using my knowledge of how searching and discovering in creative ways can really foster a love of learning, and of our natural and cultural heritage.

I guess what it does is to give people what can often be a rare chance to see the world for themselves, taking time to notice what’s important to them, and the beauty and preciousness of everyday ‘treasures’.

Tomorrow I’m back at [3] College Lake with Foundation Stage teachers from Ashmead School, planning sessions for Reception age children to explore and discover the site with me.

I also heard today that the [4] Search Museum in Gosport has got funding from [5] Renaissance South East’s as part of Green SLIME (Science Learning in Museum Education), to employ me to work with them and a local school, developing a resource supporting other schools to use creative ways to learn about biodiversity.

[6]   

And in amongst all this I’ve been researching bird migration for my own artwork at College Lake, with the aim of sharing with visitors how this little oasis near Tring is just one piece of the very large ecological puzzle that its bird visitors need to survive.