THINKING WITH YOUR HANDS / SAMHAIN
DATES: 28 October -1 November 2025
TIME: 9.30-4.30 each day
VENUE: Isfield, East Sussex UK
COST: £1800
CAPACITY: 8 students
DATES: 28 October -1 November 2025
TIME: 9.30-4.30 each day
VENUE: Isfield, East Sussex UK
COST: £1800
CAPACITY: 8 students
DATES: 28 October -1 November 2025
TIME: 9.30-4.30 each day
VENUE: Isfield, East Sussex UK
COST: £1800
CAPACITY: 8 students
We’ll take you on an exploratory journey of weaving, walking, moving, foraging, and eating. You will learn how you can create a palette of colours, materials and skills which connect you to the land. Our aim is to support you in developing your creative practice.
This retreat is based in the time of SAMHAIN, before the stillness of deep winter sets in.
No experience is needed. just a willingness to play. We aim to help you to think differently, to embrace failure and to allow yourself the space to breathe.
Each day you’ll spend some time walking and sensitively collecting plants from the land. In the workshop, we'll focus on Rush plaiting. We’ll coil and sew our plaits into mats and small baskets.
We’ll forage for mushrooms with our local expert and explore the use of mushrooms in dyeing, mordanting and printing. We’ll create a palette of greys and blacks, by processing oak galls and acorns. We’ll make charcoal and ‘bone black’.
Our explorations will support idea generation and development. Throughout the week we encourage you to write, draw and collect materials in a sketchbook. We will work towards a celebratory craft banquet which will be served, eaten and decorated with objects made on the course.
You’ll leave the retreat with a sketch box filled with samples you’ve woven. Your sketchbook will hold a record of the inks and pigments you’ve created, along with a collection of playful materials and personal creations. You’ll have Sussex folk songs in your head and possibly mud between your toes—a reminder of your connection to the land and the joy of hands-on exploration.
WHAT YOU’LL LEARN:
Making cordage and simple plaits with native rush
Sewing rush plaits to make coiled mats or small bags
Making pigments/ dyes with mushrooms/ willow/ bones
Making brushes and mark-making tools
IMPORTANT INFORMATION
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THINKING WITH YOUR HANDS
DAY ONE
9:30 am: Welcome/ Herbal tea and coffee
Demonstration of two ink-making methods: grinding with lye and boiling.
10:00 am to 11:00 am: Foraging walk: plants for pigments and inks. Collect herbs for tea. Walking meditation.
11:00 am to 11:30 am: Herbal tea around the fire.
Inspiration from John O’Donoghue11:30 am to 12:30 pm: Making ink with foraged plants
12:30 to 1:30 pm: Lunch
1:30 pm to 2:00 pm: Sit/rest
2:00 pm to 3:00 pm: Cordage. Using fibres collected and dried prior to the course.
3:00 pm to 3.45 pm: Gentle movement and breathing with Ylva
3:45 pm to 4.30 pm: Binding and wrapping skills
DAY TWO
9:00 am: Meet to travel to willow beds
9:30 am to 11:00 am: Learning about growing and harvesting willow. Stripping bark, splitting rods. Bring rolls of bark and pairs of split rods home. Foraging walk for plants to manipulate and use for mark-making.
11:00 am to 11:3 0am: Tea of foraged herbs at the willow bed.
11:30 am to 12:00 pm: Optional swim
12:00 pm to 12:30 pm: Travel back to Isfield.
12:30 pm to 1:30 pm: Lunch
1:30 pm to 2:00 pm: Sit/rest
2:00 pm to 3:30 pm: Making brushes and mark-making tools from foraged materials using the skills learnt on day one.
3:30 pm to 4:30 pm: Sketchbooks
DAY THREE
9:30 am: Introduction to the Craft Banquet
10:00 am to 11:30 am: Drawing, painting and mark-making with self-made tools and inks. Paper and fabric.
11:30 am to 12:00 pm: Herbal tea around the fire. Poem
12:00 pm to 12:30 pm: Decorating the tablecloth
Free afternoon
DAY FOUR
9:30 am to 10:30 am: Folk walk and foraging with Sandra
Sussex folk songs10:30 am to 11:15 am: Utensils. Willow bark spoons
11:15 am to 11:45 am: Herbal tea around the fire.
Inspiration from Mary Oliver11:45 am to 12:30 pm: Utensils. Making split willow tongs using materials prepared on willow bed.
12:30 pm to 1:30 pm: Lunch
1:30 pm to 2:00 pm: Sit/rest
2:00 pm to 2:30 pm: Sketchbooks
2:30 pm to 4:30 pm: Trivets, place mats.
Placemaking for the banquet/ Decorating the table5.00 pm: Optional Sauna
6:00 pm: Group Banquet
DAY FIVE
Optional early morning sea swim
9:30 am to 10:15 am: Gentle movement with Ylva10:15 am to 11:00 am: Decorating a cotton tote bag with plant inks
11:00 am to 11:30 am: Herbal tea around the fire
11:30 am to 12:30 am: Sketchbooks - cropping and arranging
12:30 pm to 1:30 pm: Lunch
1:30 pm to 2:00 pm: Sit/rest
2:00 pm to 2:30 pm: Demo of making Lye Solution and use of modifiers and binders
2:30 pm to 3:00 pm: Mini exhibition and photographing work
3.00 pm to 4:00 pm: Walking meditation. Poems under the trees.
4.00 pm to 4:30 pm: Farewell tea around the fire
*schedule subject to slight changes
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No experience is required. Just a willingness to play.
The retreat is suitable for anyone who is seeking a creative start up or a creative shake up.
It can be attended as a stand alone retreat or as one of four of our Thinking With Your Hands programme. The week will be both physical and restful. You will need to be able to walk for a couple of miles in undulating countryside.
This retreat will focus on strategies to support creativity: self care, undoing creative blocks, developing your creative identity and connecting with nature.
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Participants attending our "Thinking with Your Hands" retreat will leave with a renewed connection to the land and a deeper appreciation of the rhythms of the seasons. Through immersive experiences such as guided walks, weaving, making botanical inks from foraged plants, and exploring folk songs and seasonal readings, you’ll gain practical skills and a greater understanding of the process rather than just the outcome. This retreat offers more than techniques—it inspires a different way of seeing the world, finding beauty in the everyday, and cultivating a sensitivity to the natural cycles around you. With opportunities to reflect, swim, sauna, and simply be, you’ll also develop strategies to nourish your creativity and overcome blocks.
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Four and a half days guidance/ tuition with one free afternoon to explore locally.
All materials for making.
Delicious homemade lunches in Annemarie and Tom’s home.
A celebratory meal on the evening of the penultimate day.
Tea, coffee and biscuits throughout each day
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Accommodation whilst on the course
Flights to/from Gatwick
Transport to/from Gatwick airport
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Our studio/home is in Isfield, East Sussex, which is 1-hour south of London and 45 minutes from Gatwick International Airport.
We will pick up and drop off each day in Lewes. So if you don’t have a car, we recommend staying in Lewes or within walking distance in our village, Isfield.
Some people prefer to drive or hire a car and this gives a little more choice for countryside accommodation.
East Sussex has a huge variety of places to visit and things to do. The historic town of Lewes has many shops, restaurants, cafes and sights to see. The surrounding area also offers a great selection of creative sights if you would like to extend your visit: Charleston Farmhouse, Farley FarmDitchling Museum, Glyndebourne Opera, De La Warr Pavilion , Jerwood Gallery , Brighton Museum, Towner Gallery.
We highly recommend adding some extra days to your trip to soak up some of the local culture.
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If you cancel having paid, We'll refund 90% of your fee if we are able to fill your place.
If we are not able to fill your place you’ll forfeit your fee. We will make every reasonable effort to find someone to take your place.
If you book and pay but do not attend the course, no refund will be given.
In the unlikely event that we need to cancel the course, you’ll receive a full refund. Bookings are not transferable.
We recommend taking out travel insurance to cover the unlikely event of cancellation.
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We can help arrange for you to stay locally – either in Isfield or the historic town of Lewes.
Please contact us if you would like help or advice booking accommodation.
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If you are travelling from abroad we can pick up from Gatwick International Airport for a cost of £60 or from Lewes or Uckfield train stations at no charge.
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We invite you to put your mobile phone aside during this retreat, so you can allow yourself to be fully present.
We’ve found that past participants have been really delighted to spend their days without their phone. There are no hard rules if you really need to take a call, then of course please do.
There will be opportunity to take photographs at the end of each day.