Thought provoking fun evening – How memories are made, making the most of stuff in your home

Wow – what a creative thought provoking and fun evening we had with Jane Fletcher from the Art of Giving Community Interest Company theartofgivingcic.com

Jane informed us about the work of her company, producing and distributing motivational art for display on the walls of many hospitals, care homes, refuges – any spaces where people who are working in a community service environment need a positive boost.  Jane asked us all to think of ideas for places we could think of that would appreciate a pack – she can tailor for the receiving group.

During these challenging times many of us have been sorting through ‘stuff’ in our homes and, along with the junk, we will have found some real treasures and memories. During the talk Jane showed us how to make the very most of those treasured items by sharing real life examples from herself and others. The aim was to inspire us and she succeeded! She showed us that whatever creative ability we possess we can all make the most of our stuff and not necessarily by making stuff!

Jane asked us all refer to use this memories mind-map after her talk Memories Mind Map for 28 Jun Event  to help us to think about treasured items that we can make more of.

After the event, Club President Barbara sent us this image of shells in a glass vase – she said “Taking Jane’s idea, and fed up with the mess on the bathroom window sill, I asked my husband to tell me the story of his shells – the label on the bottom of the vase now says ‘Derek was born in Sussex and collected most of the fancy shells from Sussex beaches in the early 1960s, maybe for his Scout collector’s badge. His father and grandfather both collected things like stamps and wanted him to gain knowledge from collecting. More recently we have added shells from Rhossili beach which we both love.’ I’m sure I can improve on the arrangement over time, but as Jane said, start simple. I can honestly say I’ve never done anything like this before!”

Another Member Louise framed this message and pressed flower. She said “Jane from the Art of Giving asked to send over any examples of how we’d made art out of our ‘stuff’ following her event…. a couple months ago I received a letter from The Ideas Partnership charity in Kosovo I do work with. They sent a piece of black card with a pressed flower and stuck on the back a little thank you note, to say it was from the land where the new community centre is being built. I was there on the day they helped choose that but if land. I carefully removed the white paper from the back and framed them both… directly inspired from Jane’s session…”

The image here is from Jane’s personal collection called  ‘Grandma’s Brooch, a treasured memory framed’. The image of the safety pins was one of the motivational art pieces that Jane has donated to NHS staff.