Hi everyone,
So following on from my first piece all about the place and space on our retreat to Eden Forest, this piece is going to dig deeper into the creative element that was a fundamental part of the day.
Some of you may know me from my other Blog over on my website – The Curious Creative Club and know that my purpose in life is to unlock the creative potential in people – especially if they don’t believe themselves to be creative at all – which is a very common feeling and opinion!
And so in all the things that I do, the Retreat included there will always be an element of creative play through different activities. This is why Eden Forest was also the perfect venue because it lends itself to just that and more – delivering many different creative woodland activities, from pewter casting to seasonal crafting and bushcraft activities like fire lighting and den building.
Image by Suzanne, one of our lovely guests
For our retreat day we chose 2 activities to try – wooden spoon whittling, and willow crafting. What I loved about this is that pretty much none of us have done this before and so there’s no fear of being a beginner, we were all starting on a level playing field which puts people at ease.
The group split into two, led by Adam and Kay, and I headed off to learn all about wooden spoon whittling with Adam and 3 others in the group. Adam talked us through the wood that we would be using, the different parts of it from knots to the living part and the bark and how we would work with the piece we were given.
First, we had to draw the outline of our spoon, using charcoal made in the forest. Next, we trimmed the sides using a hammer and an axe to get our handle and then were taught how to use the carver to scoop out the bowl of our spoon.
This is not as easy as it looks! It took time and patience to get the knack of it, but there is something about taking your time, using your hands in a different way and concentrating hard to avoid any injuries, that is deeply relaxing and addictive.
Allyson commented; ‘The spoon making – just me and my wood, was such a special experience under a canopy in the woods, with silence and space to think and whittle as I created my version of a spoon and has given me special memories to look back on.’
I often call, getting into the flow of something like this, where you are fully focussed on the task in hand, and not thinking about anything else, ‘active meditation’.
We were all lost in the process of creating our spoons, interspersed with conversation about how it was going.
Meanwhile in the other group, they were learning from Kay how to make these gorgeous big willow hearts, a challenge which the participants really enjoyed;
Sue commented, ‘I was amazed by how versatile willow is as a material to craft with and how we made it more flexible by stretching it around the bark. It felt so therapeutic being absorbed in making the heart sculpture. It took my thoughts away from the everyday things to a connection with nature. I have heard it aptly described as getting into the ‘Willow Zone’. Following this experience I would love to develop my skills further and am fascinated by the history and tradition of working with willow.’
Keeley said ‘It was refreshing to hear during the session that there is no right or wrong way with willow weaving’ which resonated with me.
Clair also loved the no rules aspect – ‘We had the time and freedom to make something unique, so all the willow hearts were different – mine was huge and with wings! Some added autumn leaves to decorate theirs too.’
Following these two activities, we then gave the group half an hour to go and spend in the woodland doing whatever they wanted either creatively or just connecting with the space in some way.
Everyone did different things, we had people create art of the woodland floor using leaves and acorns, taking intuitive photos, sitting on the floor, and sketching the trees, being inspired by the trees for fairy stories, finding characters in trees and little treasures, and one person pausing to sit on a log to identify the bird calls around her.
Everyone did what was right personally for them, which is what it was all about and some just continued whittling their spoons because they were in the zone!
Keeley loved this part of the day, ‘The freedom to roam the woodlands, to sit a while or sketch or paint and meander to collect small, foraged pieces was a very calming and sensory experience.’
Again the ethos of the day was very much permission to play, and create something from nothing if they wished to.
The benefits of doing this are huge:
Learning something new or using your brain in a different way is so good for brain health
Using your hands in a new to everyday tasks is a soothing, mindful movement
You are immersed fully in the present and enhancing your focus
You are problem solving and thinking out of the box, in a new environment
By creating something from nothing, you are boosting your self-confidence and self-esteem that you can do this
Building pride and a sense of achievement
Connecting with others by doing something together as a shared experience.
This is why I am so passionate about getting people involved in creative activities, because the benefits are so varied, and yet the action can be quite simple. Just 15 minutes of doing something creative each day can have such a positive impact on wellbeing, and bring excitement and joy to your day, feeling proud of what you have created.
Having said that it’s not all about the results either, for example mine and Miriam’s spoons are VERY different, see above it’s beautiful, but the point was I thoroughly enjoyed the process, and that’s ultimately what counts.
Sure, some end results won’t be as you planned or hoped for, but so long as you don’t tie yourself in knots about that and accept that you are learning and practicing from scratch, and that you can’t be perfect at everything from the get-go, then that shouldn’t dampen your enthusiasm or steal the joy from the process!
As someone who has been doing all kinds of creative activities for years now, I still describe myself as ‘doing it all imperfectly’ , because that takes the pressure off and just allows you the freedom to experiment without rules of expectations.
Anyway, back to the retreat, and what followed next, after the pizza creation and devouring of, was an exercise in creative thinking. Sitting round the campfire, we did a visioning exercise where our participants were encouraged to dream big and write or draw a situation as if it has happened or is happening. As an example of this I handed out the visual below.
For some people this can be a big stretch, and can feel uncomfortable, or it can also be enlightening in that they didn’t have one that immediately sprung to mind. And neither of those are a bad things, it just maybe that in the busyness of life you just haven’ really had chance to think about it.
But if you start from a point of view of, ‘What could be possible?’ it can really get your creative ideas flowing. I know that some of the group found this challenging, but in a good way and it has given them food for thought to consider, long after the event.
It is so easy to be on the hamster wheel of life and not think about these things, so this task was designed to inspire deeper thinking about what you really want from this one precious life, something I encourage a lot in the Coaching side of my business.
Since the retreat, I can see that all kinds of ideas have been sparked and people are looking at what they can take forwards from the retreat, one with relatives in Sweden has been talking to her family about the spoon whittling session and low and behold her dad discovered the same kind of little wood carvers in his garage and has already sent them over!
Another I know is intending potentially to make a whole batch of these for a larger creative project which is very exciting!
So watch this space there could be new wooden spoons and willow product businesses incoming to Huddersfield!
In the final piece of this series I’ll be talking all about the Human Connection and the impact of that on the day too, another vital element to the overall success and lasting experience of the day.
I hope this piece has encouraged you to think about doing something creative soon, at the very least, just going for a walk and doing something as daft as above is a fun, mindful activity and a great conversation starter with those passing by, why not give it a go, and consequently benefit also from being ‘Under the Trees’ – see what I did there?
Until next time, have some creative fun out there,
Juliet x