Out & About
Wild Oak Workshops
Creative workshops that reconnect
you with nature… and yourself
www.wildoakworkshops.com
A Little bit about me:
My name is Katie and I am passionate about helping people slow down, reconnect with nature and unleash the creative self in all of us. At Wild Oak Workshops, I design creative experiences where you will feel reconnected with nature, switch off from life’s daily pressures and when you leave, clutching your wonderful creation, you’ll feel your senses have been reawakened and creativity refreshed.
My creative learning workshops are fun, friendly, relaxed and rewarding. Perfect for you to come along to and enjoy on your own, or with a member of your family or a friend.
The Nest is a warm and happy environment to meet like minded people where we can create and learn from each other. You will leave with new skills, new friends and enjoy a sense of achievement with a renewed appreciation of the nature that surrounds us all.
My Why!
Nature is my Therapy – it is the only way I feel I can ground myself and feel properly at peace, when I immerse myself in the Natural world that surrounds me.
So my daily dog walks in my local woods are crucial for me so that I can find a calm quiet moment to focus on something else other than the minutae of my life.
I know my woodland so well that I look for all the magical little signs of the seasons changing. Leaf buds, queen bumble bees emerging, thick green shoots of new fronds of bracken fern, rain drops captured on bright green moss, the smell of summer rain drops on the pine needle forest floor.
I often walk with friends and instinctively point out the little pockets of wonder happening all around us, particularly if we have young woodland explorers with us. Most of us have completely stopped noticing the tiny little tells that spring is about to burst forth or the autumn mulching and composting ready for toadstools and mushrooms to break through the fallen autumn leaves.
Once we start looking our eyes suddenly see so much more, particularly as grown-ups, always rushing and multi-tasking thoughts in our heads. Then to gather a few sticks encrusted with lichen or a branch of fallen winter spruce to take back to my workshop and create something beautiful means that I can then marvel at nature in my home too!
Creativity is also something I need and rely on to give me a sense of achievement in a world which seems a never-ending mountain of tasks and to-do lists. I can’t tell you how happy it makes me to watch my clients faces light up when their creation starts to really emerge in front of their eyes.
’I can’t believe I made that!’ is a phrase that is often said with huge beams of pride on their faces. It’s the tactileness of holding an oak branch feeling the lichen, really studying the myriad of colours that nature provides through a macro lens that I supply that enables everyone to stop and absorb themselves.
Or inhaling the delicious smell of green moss harvested from the forest floor just after a rain fall. My clients are always so uplifted and relieved that I have been able to offer them a few hours of utter immersion into the beauty of the hedgerows and woodlands locally.
Wild Oak Workshops coming to you!
I am often invited to bring ‘WOW’ to beautiful locations as part of the Nature Engagement Team or Welcoming team. The Norfolk Wild Life Trust (NWT Cley Marshes) asked me to bring all my delicious Natural Christmas Wreath ingredients last December and I am a firm fixture at the beautiful Ely Cathedral with my seasonal workshops. My Mothering Sunday bouquet was very popular and everyone made stunning creations in honour of Motherhood.
I tailor make bespoke workshops too for groups of up to 20 guests. Corporate gatherings are veering away from big hospitality events and instead immersing their hard working staff in more personal and rewarding experiences such as mine. Mind health is a topic that comes up time and again during my workshops. Clients may have been recommended by a friend to join one of my creative experiences to try and unwind and have some well earned ‘quiet time’.
Nature therapy is what I offer, to finally find a moment to pause and enjoy a couple of hours creative floristry whilst learning about the seasons and how magical and beautiful our hedgerows and surrounding countryside is.
I have teamed up with West Acre Theatre – a stunning location and a wonderful selection of theatre and drama performances and experiences. They, like all of us will be celebrating our Queens Platinum Jubilee this June with a myriad of events including inviting you to come down to the tranquil lake and gather gorgeous pink flowers and foliage together with me to support and raise awareness for Breast Cancer UK.
I have lots of new events for you to enjoy right up until Christmas and will also be launching a wonderful new collaboration which I am thrilled to have co-created with another talented creative therapist – watch this space!!
WILD OAK WORKSHOPS
Hall Farm, Walton Road, East Winch, Norfolk PE32 1HH
