The Creativity for All Podcast

Season 3 of The Creativity for All Podcast has concluded with a fabulous conversation with inventor Solveiga Pakštaite, and this feels like the right time for me to put an end to this fabulous - but time-consuming - adventure, in order to focus on my writing.

I've loved meeting such a wide range of guests and exploring creativity in Maths, education, neuroscience, mental health, kindness, marketing, pottery, glass engraving, weaving, willow sculpture, speed painting, photography, acting, directing, and yoga, to name but a few of the topics discussed in the course of three seasons.

And I've loved wrestling with topics, such as, perfectionism (a very popular episode, interestingly), inspiration, failure, instinct, ease, and the pressure to be creative, as well as discovering your take on creativity in my solo episodes.

Never say never! I might be back later on with a whole new range of guests and topics, but for the time being, I'm going to focus on my writing.

Thank you for listening!

In September 2022, a stall at the Ely market caught my attention, not just because every woven piece was beautiful, but because I saw at the far end of the table a small weaving loom, which made me think, quite rightly, that the creator of these lovely pieces was worth having a chat with.

Rosie-may Greenbank is a traditional hand-weaver, cloth designer, maker, photographer, and web designer. Working with heritage skills to create artisan cloth, she uses traditional wooden looms, very much in the same way weavers have for hundreds of years. During the first lockdown she set up her business Mays Wonderfully Woven with the help of the Prince’s Trust. She designs and weaves artisanal cloth, which is then hand-crafted into a variety of bespoke apparel, furnishings, and gifts.

In this episode, Rosie-may shares her take on creativity and her creative process, from having a specific inspiration point – a colour or yarn, a visit to Bletchley Park, or the sharp contours of a piece of metal or even paper – to drawing and creating a design based on a series of numbers in a grid system, which she translates into a piece of woven cloth.

To her, weave is a language. Her designs are meticulously planned, allowing her to have a flexible approach when creating her pieces, to experiment and immerse herself in the flow of weaving.

Rosie-may describes the magic of building fabric, effectively creating a piece out of nothing, how the tradition of weaving has been passed on through generations, the emotional connection she has with each piece she weaves and the pride she takes in not only carrying out such a tradition, but in making it accessible to others through her online tutorials.

Fabric, as she reminds us beautifully, is an integral part of our lives and each of her pieces has a unique story. This conversation made me want to grab a pencil and draw, so I hope you enjoy it and will feel equally inspired by it!

Useful Links

Rosie-may's website

Rosie's Instagram

Rosie's Facebook

Rosie's Ely market dates

Meet the women working wonders with thread

ABOUT THE CREATIVITY FOR ALL PODCAST

A maths teacher can be creative. So can a financial adviser, a community builder, and a yoga teacher. Not to mention a speed painter, a potter, or an actor!

Creativity is everywhere and I love nothing more than to explore it in The Creativity for All Podcast, either by focusing on a theme – such as perfectionism, feeding your creative brain, or the pressure to be creative – in my solo episodes, or through my conversations with all manner of creative people.

I want to challenge the perception of creativity and, in the process, debunk many myths attached to it: it's painful, for artists and the chosen few, etc. My guests and I are keen to zoom in and dissect the origin of an idea, the impulse that makes us engage with our own creativity, with the hope that it will inspire listeners to get creative too. My podcast is designed for anyone who’s already being creative, or is tempted to use their creativity, in particular those of you who think they are not creative or can never be. I would love to change your mind!

Sculpture, and especially willow sculpture, has always fascinated me, so when I came across Emma Stothard's website, I knew I had to get in touch. Emma is a Yorkshire-based willow and wire sculptor. Inspired by the creatures of the North York Moors, where she lives, she creates sculptures of wild/domestic animals and birds. After receiving a BA Honours in Fine Art from Southampton Solent University, she briefly moved to the Somerset Levels to learn the process of growing, coppicing, bundling, and weaving willow.

In 2001, thanks to a loan from The Prince's Trust, Emma started her sculpting business. Her sculptures are exhibited nationally and internationally, with some gracing the gardens of stately homes, galleries, and private homes around the country, including a large-scale portrait of King Charles III's beloved Jack Russell dog ‘Tigga', made from willow grown on the Highgrove Estate and sited there.

Emma shares her take on creativity as a continual flow of movement of the materials and of ideas, the relationship between her work and the outdoor space, from which she draws her inspiration, and how she's always pushing herself to explore her own creativity and learn something new, using different scales (from mice to dragons, elephants, and small castles), different mediums (willow, silver, bronze and copper wire, clay, ceramics), and exploring new fields (such as, jewellery, homeware, and garden furniture), with the view to creating functional pieces with a sculptural aspect.

She describes the process of going from a 2-D drawing to a 3-D sculpture and of welding a metal armature as a basis to weave the willow around, giving her the freedom to create the shapes she wants. She also explains why she chose willow primarily and what makes it such an evocative and enjoyable medium.

From celebrating Whitby's fishing heritage to sculpting hares and six-foot tall scarecrows, there's a palpable sense of excitement in every project Emma takes on, sometimes even adding personal touches to her sculptures and, in the process, attaching a story to them. I had a wonderful time talking to Emma and learning about her creative process, so I hope you enjoy our conversation.

Emma's website

On Instagram: @emmastothard

On FB: Emma Stothard Sculpture

On Twitter: @emmastothardart

ABOUT THE CREATIVITY FOR ALL PODCAST

A maths teacher can be creative. So can a financial adviser, a community builder, and a yoga teacher. Not to mention a speed painter, a potter, or an actor!

Creativity is everywhere and I love nothing more than to explore it in The Creativity for All Podcast, either by focusing on a theme – such as perfectionism, feeding your creative brain, or the pressure to be creative – in my solo episodes, or through my conversations with all manner of creative people.

I want to challenge the perception of creativity and, in the process, debunk many myths attached to it: it's painful, for artists and the chosen few, etc. My guests and I are keen to zoom in and dissect the origin of an idea, the impulse that makes us engage with our own creativity, with the hope that it will inspire listeners to get creative too. My podcast is designed for anyone who’s already being creative, or is tempted to use their creativity, in particular those of you who think they are not creative or can never be. I would love to change your mind!

Today's guest, Voula Tsoflias, is a writer of psychological fiction and non-fiction psychology, combining her two passions in life: fiction writing and psychology. Following a long and happy career as a corporate psychologist, she now devotes her time to writing and related activities.

She's finishing her third novel, Halo. Her first novel, Honor’s Shadow, was published by Karnac in 2012. She’s a contributing author to the DK Psychology book and the co-founder of Resilience for Writers, with author Isabel Costello, supporting writers through the specific challenges of trying to get published, with workshops and writings.

Voula is also the Ambassador for Corporate Sponsorship for the charity Bounce Forward, dedicated to developing the psychological fitness of next generations of children and young people, through high-quality teaching in schools.

In her professional work as a psychologist, she applied the science of positive psychology, working closely with leaders facing complex business challenges. A powerful element of that, is the identification of obstacles to goals, and how to overcome them, which is also a fundamental element of most fiction.

For Voula, psychology and storytelling are profoundly entwined, which is one of the many reasons I've invited her on the podcast. I’ve known her as a writer and mentor for close to nine years and I was curious to hear her take, not only on creativity and the ways to explore it, but also on emotional resilience, a topic which has been on my mind for many years.

To her being creative, means thinking and seeing things differently, experimenting through a process which is both bold and challenging. She explains the core principles of Cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT), from which most therapies spring, how we can use our thoughts to down-regulate our feelings, as well as the various ways in which we can address our own self-criticism and "wardrobe of beliefs" we cling to.

We discuss the notion of flexibility as a key component of positive psychology and creativity, the definition of realistic optimism, why self-kindness isn't as natural as being kind to others, and the creative ways we have at our disposal to reframe our internal narratives, in order to live a more fulfilling and resilient life. I finished our discussion feeling inspired and invigorated, so I hope you enjoy it.

Voula's website

Books/websites mentioned by Voula during our conversation:

Learned Optimism: How to Change Your Mind and Your Life, Martin E.P. Seligman (1990), ISBN: 978-1473684317

The Stories We Live By: Personal Myths and the Making of the Self, Dan P. McAdams (1993), ISBN: 9781572301887

The DK Psychology Book

Honor's Shadow

Rick Hanson's website

ABOUT THE CREATIVITY FOR ALL PODCAST

A maths teacher can be creative. So can a financial adviser, a community builder, and a yoga teacher. Not to mention a speed painter, a potter, or an actor!

Creativity is everywhere and I love nothing more than to explore it in The Creativity for All Podcast, either by focusing on a theme – such as perfectionism, feeding your creative brain, or the pressure to be creative – in my solo episodes, or through my conversations with all manner of creative people.

I want to challenge the perception of creativity and, in the process, debunk many myths attached to it: it's painful, for artists and the chosen few, etc.

My guests and I are keen to zoom in and dissect the origin of an idea, the impulse that makes us engage with our own creativity, with the hope that it will inspire listeners to get creative too.

My podcast is designed for anyone who’s already being creative, or is tempted to use their creativity, in particular those of you who think they are not creative or can never be. I would love to change your mind!

ABOUT THE CREATIVITY FOR ALL PODCAST

A maths teacher can be creative. So can a financial adviser, a community builder, and a yoga teacher. Not to mention a speed painter, a potter, or an actor!

Creativity is everywhere and I love nothing more than to explore it in The Creativity for All Podcast, either by focusing on a theme – such as perfectionism, feeding your creative brain, or the pressure to be creative – in my solo episodes, or through my conversations with all manner of creative people.

I want to challenge the perception of creativity and, in the process, debunk many myths attached to it: it's painful, for artists and the chosen few, etc.

My guests and I are keen to zoom in and dissect the origin of an idea, the impulse that makes us engage with our own creativity, with the hope that it will inspire listeners to get creative too.

My podcast is designed for anyone who’s already being creative, or is tempted to use their creativity, in particular those of you who think they are not creative or can never be. I would love to change your mind!

Kindness.org is on a mission to educate and inspire people to choose kindness and science is the foundation and heartbeat of their work, through their collaboration with researchers at Harvard University and educators, one of the many topics raised in my conversation with today's guest, Becca Reed.

Over the last decade Becca’s worked with thousands of educators and students across the US, first as a classroom teacher, a program designer and trainer, and then as an education consultant. As the latter, she worked with change-making educators and organizations to build bridges between “what is” and “what could be” in education.   She is now the Director of Products & Programs at Kindness.org and the creator of the Learn Kind curriculum, a K-8 kindness curriculum powered by social-emotional learning and scientific inquiry that has reached nearly 100,000 students since its launch in 2020.   Becca shares with us her take on creativity, the role of storytelling in inspiring and empowering us to choose kindness, and how science can remove barriers and help us embrace kindness wholeheartedly.   We discuss the reason kindness needed rebranding, how we all have the capacity to choose it, but don’t always know where to start, and her excitement at the powerful – scientifically proven – ripple effect the smallest act of kindness can generate. By the end of this episode, you will not see kindness in quite the same light, so I hope you enjoy it.

Kindness.org   Kindness.org's Initiatives   The Learn Kind Curriculum   Can I help you with anything?   Becca's LinkedIn profile   Becca’s podcast (retired but still active)

ABOUT THE CREATIVITY FOR ALL PODCAST

A maths teacher can be creative. So can a financial adviser, a community builder, and a yoga teacher. Not to mention a speed painter, a potter, or an actor!

Creativity is everywhere and I love nothing more than to explore it in The Creativity for All Podcast, either by focusing on a theme – such as perfectionism, feeding your creative brain, or the pressure to be creative – in my solo episodes, or through my conversations with all manner of creative people.

I want to challenge the perception of creativity and, in the process, debunk many myths attached to it: it's painful, for artists and the chosen few, etc.

My guests and I are keen to zoom in and dissect the origin of an idea, the impulse that makes us engage with our own creativity, with the hope that it will inspire listeners to get creative too.

My podcast is designed for anyone who’s already being creative, or is tempted to use their creativity, in particular those of you who think they are not creative or can never be. I would love to change your mind!

Grab a pen and paper and join me for another short creative exercise – a follow-up to the ever so popular episode 34 – designed to get you thinking about your own take on, and relationship with, creativity. Ready?

ABOUT THE CREATIVITY FOR ALL PODCAST

A maths teacher can be creative. So can a financial adviser, a community builder, and a yoga teacher. Not to mention a speed painter, a potter, or an actor!

Creativity is everywhere and I love nothing more than to explore it in The Creativity for All Podcast, either by focusing on a theme – such as perfectionism, feeding your creative brain, or the pressure to be creative – in my solo episodes, or through my conversations with all manner of creative people.

I want to challenge the perception of creativity and, in the process, debunk many myths attached to it: it's painful, for artists and the chosen few, etc.

My guests and I are keen to zoom in and dissect the origin of an idea, the impulse that makes us engage with our own creativity, with the hope that it will inspire listeners to get creative too.

My podcast is designed for anyone who’s already being creative, or is tempted to use their creativity, in particular those of you who think they are not creative or can never be. I would love to change your mind!

Ten minutes is all it took between the moment I came across a post about The Human Library and the moment I sent an invitation to its founder, journalist and social change activist, Ronni Abergel, today’s guest.

The Human Library is an international not-for-profit organisation, which started in Copenhagen, Denmark, 22 years ago, and is now available in 85 countries and 50 languages. Just as you borrow a printed book from your community’s library, you can borrow a human book from one of the many book depots The Human Library is running across the world.

You choose a title – homeless, bisexual, bipolar, transgender, to name but a few – from a reading list of people from your community, who are facing stigmas and exclusion on a daily basis, and you spend 30 minutes with your book. You’re given a neutral space to listen and ask questions.

How you choose to read your human book is up to you. To quote Ronni’s words, ‘We are in charge of our learning outcomes. It is our courage and curiosity, which define the experience and what we get to talk about. This means that no two readings nor events are the same’.

My very first Human Library event, a couple of weeks before recording this conversation, was unlike anything I’d ever experienced before. I arrived in rainy Norwich feeling curious and excited, and as I was about to read my very first human book, a man with Asperger’s syndrome, I suddenly felt anxious, uncomfortable, and vulnerable.

By the time he started telling me what his life had been like, about the judgements, the challenges, but also his passions and interests, I decided I would do my best to read as many books as was possible that day.

I read five and, on the train back to Cambridge, I felt uplifted, exhilarated, and vulnerable still. An unlikely combination, perhaps, but one that reminded me that connecting with others and overcoming our fears and prejudices, means exploring our own humanity in the most creative way possible, because it means using our imagination and empathy to relate to somebody’s else experience, however different it might seem.

Today Ronni shares his take on creativity and why running The Human Library feels like a calling. He describes the process of developing a sustainable model and reviewing it on a regular basis, and of creating book depots across the world, putting ethical boundaries when selecting human books and tailoring reading lists to corporate and institutional partners.

We discuss what it means to acknowledge our unconscious biases, inherent to our survival instinct, and own them, in order to potentially ‘unjudge’ others, a term embraced by The Human Library which, I hope, will soon make its way into our dictionaries.

When I started this podcast in January 2020, I didn’t know where it would take me. All I knew, was that I wanted to explore creativity in all its shapes and forms and meet all manner of creative people. Since then, I’ve had a wide range of guests from different parts of the world talking about our shared creativity and humanity.

The fact that two years on, I am now introducing a conversation between a Dane, and myself, a French woman, recorded in English, about what brings us together as human beings, about our prejudices, fears, and vulnerability, but also the immense creativity we have at our disposal to overcome those and help us connect with one another, makes me feel not only very grateful, but also proud, so I hope you will enjoy it.

ABOUT THE CREATIVITY FOR ALL PODCAST

A maths teacher can be creative. So can a financial adviser, a community builder, and a yoga teacher. Not to mention a speed painter, a potter, or an actor!

Creativity is everywhere and I love nothing more than to explore it in The Creativity for All Podcast, either by focusing on a theme – such as perfectionism, feeding your creative brain, or the pressure to be creative – in my solo episodes, or through my conversations with all manner of creative people.

I want to challenge the perception of creativity and, in the process, debunk many myths attached to it: it's painful, for artists and the chosen few, etc.

That observation is a key skill when it comes to any type of creative endeavour seems fairly obvious. That we all have observation skills, even more so. But to what extent are we aware of them, how often are we actively using them, and what can we do to hone them?

ABOUT THE CREATIVITY FOR ALL PODCAST

A maths teacher can be creative. So can a financial adviser, a community builder, and a yoga teacher. Not to mention a speed painter, a potter, or an actor!

Creativity is everywhere and I love nothing more than to explore it in The Creativity for All Podcast, either by focusing on a theme – such as perfectionism, feeding your creative brain, or the pressure to be creative – in my solo episodes, or through my conversations with all manner of creative people.

I want to challenge the perception of creativity and, in the process, debunk many myths attached to it: it's painful, for artists and the chosen few, etc.

My guests and I are keen to zoom in and dissect the origin of an idea, the impulse that makes us engage with our own creativity, with the hope that it will inspire listeners to get creative too.

My podcast is designed for anyone who’s already being creative, or is tempted to use their creativity, in particular those of you who think they are not creative or can never be. I would love to change your mind!