NEW THEME FOR THE NEW YEAR! What does ‘warm’ mean to you? See here for details and get creating!
December 19, 2023:
So another year is drawing to a close, and this is our last post for RF Create’s inaugural year of 2023. When we first launched this site our aim was to give us, the RF community – both staff and people we support – a space to express ourselves, and to showcase our creativity.
What we have received in the months since has been truly wonderful. We’ve been moved, amused, impressed and inspired, sometimes all at once! We’ve thoroughly enjoyed the different ways people have interpreted the various theme ideas, whether it be in words, pictures, food, crafts or sounds. It has been an honour to display this material for others to enjoy, and we thank you for sharing it with us.
While every theme has brought some outstanding entries, I think my personal highlight of the year has to be ‘Escape’, which ran over the summer months. The variations in response to that particular word and the unique connotations it holds for every individual, from holiday memories to personal demons and places we go to in our minds, meant that our RF Create inbox during those weeks was a veritable ‘box of chocolates.’
We’ll be back in 2024 with more new themes for you to ponder, but as ever, don’t feel you have to wait for a theme. If you’ve got something you really want to share, send it to us. We’ll make it fit – we’re clever like that.
All that remains is to wish all of our creators and contributors, and all those who have visited this site in 2023, a very happy, safe, warm festive season, and to wish you all the best for 2024.
See you next year!
– David Mitchell, RF Create.
Christmas Wreath making at Chichester Richmond Fellowship Craft Club, kindly sent in by Karen Wheeler; see some of their beautiful wreaths below!
December 7, 2023:
As 2023 begins to fade away, we’ve been asking you to share with us your creative sparks on the theme of ‘giving and receiving’.
I don’t know about you, but sometimes, especially when times are tough and I don’t have the wherewithal to splash out on expensive gifts, I take just as much joy in being able to give my time to a friend, or to help someone out who needs practical or emotional support or just some company. And I appreciate it when someone does that for me, too.
That said, a gift in the hand is great too isn’t it, especially at this time of year, and it still doesn’t need to cost a lot. One of our North Somerset residents has found a passion for making jewellery (see right), developed through a local community learning course signposted by RF, and has kindly shared with us a piece of their wonderful work.
We’d love to see and hear what ‘giving and receiving’ means to you. Whether in words, pictures, food, crafts, sounds or something we haven’t even thought of, please give us the gift of your creativity, to be shared with the RF community.
– David Mitchell, RF Create.
SNOW
The sky is filled with feathers!
Look up!
Winter, getting broody,
settles herself over all of us.
DOD, Wiltshire
My most treasured gift this year was a bag of maize-based snacks. Yep, you read that right. Gone in 60 seconds, but I still remember it now. And while it’s true I’m a man of small and simple pleasures, the ‘who’ and the ‘why’ of the gift were all-important. A friend, noticing I was going through a low phase and hearing my pangs of nostalgia for my old home in Australia, took the trouble to research, order and send a “care pack” of favourite Aussie snacks. To know she had taken time out of her day to do something that she knew would put a smile on my face when I needed it most, infused that gift with so much meaning. – David Mitchell, Weston-super-Mare.
November 7, 2023:
Thanks so much to everyone who contributed to our last theme, ‘What Frightens You?’ Now, as we begin the countdown towards the end of another year, we’re asking for your entries on the theme of ‘giving and receiving.’
What joy is sparked in you by the giving of a gift to someone special, or perhaps to someone who really needs cheering up? Maybe your ‘gift’ isn’t something tangible, but a donation of your time, your love, your wisdom. And how does it feel when you are the recipient of someone else’s ‘gift.’
Whether in words, pictures, food, crafts, sounds or something we haven’t even thought of, please give us the gift of your creativity, to be shared with the RF community.
And while you’re looking for inspiration, check out the wonderful poem below sent in by VW from Kirklees, with a great message!
– David Mitchell, RF Create.
Thanks to Lucy from our Braeside project for sending in this cute little creature she made!
