About Me

Welcome to Helen’s Art and Crafts

My creative journey began at Ravensbourne University, where I consolidated my art and design skills, majoring in Furniture and Product Design and graduating with a BA (Hons). During my time there, I learned not only how to illustrate my ideas, but how to engineer, manufacture and present a finished product, skills that continue to underpin everything I create today.​

After graduating at 21, with other careers beckoning, I followed a different path and joined the Army, training as an Officer Cadet at RMA Sandhurst. It was there that my love of the outdoors deepened. The quiet beauty of misty dawns, the vibrant colours of setting suns and the stillness of nature during exercises left a lasting impression on me. Those silent moments, when nature invites you to truly observe its diversity and detail, continue to influence my work.

​I have always followed my heart throughout my working life. After a short stint in sales, I felt a strong pull to build something for myself. My husband and I bought a pub and completely transformed it, achieving a five-year business plan in just eighteen months. We were nominated as Best Newcomer by our brewery, and I led the redesign of the interior, working closely with the brewery and builders - a challenging and exciting project that reawakened the design skills I’d developed years earlier at Ravensbourne.​

Alongside pub life, running became a huge part of my world. I joined a local athletics club and ran cross country through some truly breath-taking landscapes. Running gave me space to breathe, to escape, and to feel free in my own thoughts. Volunteering as an athletics coach led me to work with British Athletics as part of their Coach Education Team, where I became a tutor, teaching coaches how to coach.​

During this time, I also trained as a swimming instructor and, after leaving pub life behind, set up my own swim school. I successfully ran it for almost twenty years, continually studying child psychology, maintaining CPDs and keeping my teaching engaging, current and fun.​

During Covid, my creative flare erupted once more. I returned to drawing, painting and designing, and began attending small village and pub markets, selling my jewellery and crafts on a very small scale. That spark reignited something that had always been there.​

Now, having closed the swimming chapter of my life, I have returned fully to my creative roots - threads that have woven through every stage of my journey. This new chapter feels both familiar and exciting. My creativity flows once more, and I invite you to explore what I’m creating today.​

I believe that what we experience in our past influences what we create in the present. I hope you enjoy the colours, contrasting materials, and the use of recycled and upcycled preloved beads and cutlery throughout my work.​

Thank you for taking the time to read my story.

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Helen x