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Making things by hand can significantly boost people's health and wellbeing. Learning new techniques, experiencing textures and colours and sharing activities with a social group can all generate a deep sense of wellbeing and belonging.

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My training in the field of Dementia includes completing the outstanding ‘Dementia Stars’  (Gold Level) training , by Grace Stead from Enrichment for the Elderly Sheffield 2025.

Prior to this I had attendend the 2014 Creative Dementia Conference, Oxford (Creative Dementia Arts Network) and in addition I had been a participant in the wonderful drama sessions by Ladder to the Moon at the Imagine a Difference: Visioning Day for practitioners wanting to explore creativity in relation to Dementia (Praxis Arts and Health network West Midlands) 2011.

In Autumn 2025 I started supporting at Burngreave Dementia Welcome Cafe in Sheffield.

Showcased Project :

The Joy of Making : Wolverhampton Art Gallery 

During this seven week project I worked with participants from Penn Hospital's Older Adult Mental Health Unit; Stowheath Day Centre and Wolverhampton ReThink to produce work to compliment artist, Helen Snell’s, solo exhibition. Helen had taken inspiration from the museum’s collection of Polish paper-cuts.

The community exhibition was called The Joy of Making. It ran from Feb-April 2012 and it was  wonderful!
 

There is no doubt that creating with your hands has a very therapeutic and beneficial effect on people's wellbeing.

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Despite having no memory of the previous session A was a great 'joiner-in’ and she came to every session  However, it was obvious that her body had some sort of memory; I often say how felting is best learnt by doing and it was obvious that A’s body remembered how to handle the wool fibres.

In the 6th week A rediscovered her ability to plait and got very busy plaiting lengths of the fluffy merino wool tops. This was a perfect opportunity to talk about memories of hairstyles from our childhoods. 

A’s independence grew noticeably over the weeks. At first she was assisted by one of the occupational therapists, then she quickly showed her individuality by deciding on colours and was happy to continue independently. I was delighted when she made some design decisions including leaving her flowers with solid petals rather than cutting them and when she made her plait and stitched it in a diagonal across her mat.

In the second week we made small multi-coloured felted balls and some beads. L not only made some beads but also spent some time arranging them around one of the felted pieces that Occupational Therapist, Karen, had made in the previous week. I was interested to see how absorbed she got in this activity (she was singing as she did it) and also that she didn’t feel constrained to arrange the beads in an obvious flower pattern.

The first week that we made felted mats with felted fringing was the only week that a lady called J took park. She amazed the Occupational Therapist team by staying engaged in the activity for much longer than she had in previous craft activities. Her calm and happy expression showed that she was enjoying the sensory experience of working with the soapy water and rubbing the wool fibres. 

In the sessions there was often laughter and on more than one occasion dancing too.

It was wonderful to meet up with the group members when they attended the opening event of The Joy of Making at Wolverhampton Art Gallery.