National Creative Wellbeing Project

I find that concentrating on a creative task helps my wellbeing and mental health. As I am focused on one thing that I’m enjoying, all my worries about what is going on around me go away for a while and I can just enjoy being creative.

Completing a creative project with friends and family is always fun. Sometimes I need a bit of help identifying smaller pieces, but I have support from my wife and, between the two of us, we get there in the end."

Since I became partially sighted, I turned to the NCWP with its specially designed, bespoke kits with art materials chosen for vision-impaired artists. It’s provided me with wonderful opportunities to regain confidence, reconnect and learn to paint again. The hobby circles also connect like-minded blind veterans.

The piece I share here is a pen and ink drawing of a large country house, surrounded by detailed foliage. Patience is key to being creative with a vision impairment. Some methods have to be adapted, but you can always achieve more than you think. When I spend time painting, drawing or crocheting I’m immersed in “another place”. This is “my place” and when I stop, I realise how relaxed I am. It’s a real boost to my mental wellbeing and keeps me out of trouble!"

My workshop is the place I go to de-stress. I love the challenge of building something - the more complicated the better! I love building wooden models - I’m holding the NCWP aircraft carrier in the photograph.

I also like to repurpose wood and logs with a story behind them. I repurposed wood from the Llandudno Centre into a bandsaw box and ended up with a collaborative art piece with two other blind veterans. I’ve also incorporated other crafts into my work, such as mosaic tiles, to add colourful detail.

At Christmas, I turn small decorations, like snowmen or nativity figures, and my wife decorates them so we can give them as gifts. It’s lovely to share my hobby and I would always encourage other blind veterans to just have a go at being creative. You never know what you might be able to make."

When the NCWP started in 2020, my eyes lit up at the offer of a plant project that you could grow on your windowsill. The first autumn project was an amaryllis bulb. What a resounding success that was, especially for those of us who had never even seen an amaryllis in flower, let alone grown one!

There’s also a gardening phone group once a month which I’m proud to support, where we discuss our successes and failures. Blind veterans with all levels of gardening ability join in, and we’re happy to survive and thrive on the projects selected by the staff and posted out to us with everything needed to nurture something green to fruition on a windowsill."