Jacqueline – who works under the name Willow and Crafts  – followed a meandering path towards her artistic career as a child, she loved nothing more than exploring her natural surroundings and making mud pies and rose petal perfumes.

Her father’s work meant that her family would move to a different location every few years and making and uncovering the sparks of magic outside her doorstep was often her way of connecting with her new home.

As she moved into adulthood Jacqueline realized that she wanted to share this sense of creative discovery with others. She spent several years working in community engagement roles where her love of creating came into its own,this led to her opening her own art workshop business in 2007. Soon after, a chance visit to a festival in 2009 brought her to the wonderful world of creating with willow and as  the saying goes, the rest was history.

Jacqueline work demonstrates a playful spontaneity – she is a strong advocate for ‘learning by doing', and she strives to inspire others to lose themselves in the process of creating, her work is rarely about the final product, and instead of the joyous act of harvesting and collecting materials before centring herself in the artistic journey. 

 

In the autumn of 2019, Jacqueline was awarded a “Talent Development Grant by the arts organisation a-space arts, to spend time as an artist in residence at  Furzey Gardens located in the New Forest where she was able to spend time investigating and experimenting with discarded materials in the garden.