New in 2021: Free Online Course

Want to learn to practice relaxation exercises, and art for self-care?

We are looking forward to working with Devon Recovery Learning Community in 2021 to deliver a new six week course, on Zoom.

This recovery college is provided by Devon Partnership NHS Trust to support mental health and wellbeing. Their students are people with experience of mental health difficulties, their family and friends, and the professionals who support them.

Each session of our new course includes five minutes of guided mindfulness, five minutes of mindful drawing, a simple art project, and the opportunity to chat and relax.

‘Doodle Your Recovery’ gives people the opportunity to share their feelings, practice mindfulness, create art, relax and chat. This course:

Improves mental health
Improves social connection
Teaches new skills (relaxation exercises and art for self- care)

We start with a ‘check in’ to see how everyone is feeling. There is no obligation to speak if you don’t want to. This is followed by some guided mindfulness, then a simple art project e.g. drawing Zentangles or paisley, or making a greetings card.

We end the group with a ‘check out’ to share how everyone is feeling after practicing mindfulness and making art.

This 6 week, online course starts on Thursday 14th January, then 21st and 28th January and 4th and 11th February.

Places are limited. Book early to avoid disappointment: Doodle Your Recovery Online.

December 1, 2020

We’re Back Next Week!

We hope you were OK during the November lockdown. As you may know, we stopped all of our in-person art groups and just offered a weekly Zoom session for coffee, creativity and company every Tuesday. This will be carrying on throughout December. (We no longer live-stream this online group to Facebook because of some technical issues, so from now on you need to book a place in advance to get the Zoom link.)

We’re excited that our new 8-week wellbeing course launches in Plympton on 8th December, and this has proved to be very popular, with only two places remaining. Book now to confirm your place!

Things to look forward to in December 2020 include:

Mondays 10.30am The Sunflower Women’s Centre (we’re back on the 7th).
Tuesdays 10.00am Our friendly Online Group (£3.00)
Tuesdays: 7.00pm 8-Week Wellbeing Course (Advance booking essential, starts on the 8th.)
Thursdays 10.00am Plympton drop-in group at The Brook Inn (£5.00) We’re back on 10th.
Fridays 10.30am The Sunflower Women’s Centre (we’re back on 11th).
Fridays 1.00pm Ocean Studios, Royal William Yard (we’re back on 11th).

Full details on how to attend these groups are here: Mindful Art Community Groups For most groups booking is essential due to Covid-19 safety recommendations.

All our groups are held with Covid-19 safety measures in place, but please check the ‘Groups’ page on our website before travelling, in case there are new government guidelines affecting our meetings.

If you don’t feel safe coming to a group at the moment we totally understand. Support groups are legally allowed to meet, and we have carried out a risk assessment on our work. But if you cannot join us in person we hope some of our YouTube videos might help you to feel less isolated. If you’re on Facebook you could also join our Mindful Art Club group to stay in touch with others who come to our sessions. It’s a place to chat, maintain connections, support one another, and share your art from the Zoom sessions. You may also like to join our mailing list to get the free mindful colouring bundle.

Looking forward to seeing you again.

Peggy and Emma

November 23, 2020November 23, 2020

Order Christmas Cards Now

When they are not running Mindful Art Club, Emma and Peggy are both practicing artists. If you would like to order a set of Christmas cards designed by Peggy, order as soon as possible to get delivery by early December.

High quality box set of 25 cards with a selection of quirky fun images, and fine art designs by Peggy Pegworth, supplied with 25 white envelopes.

In this video Peggy opens her luxury box set of unique Christmas cards, sniffs the smell of newly printed paper, and does a surprisingly brief Christmas dance.

See all the designs here: Christmas Cards, 25 Pack.

Note for 2020: The “I am an Oeuf” Christmas design shown in the video has been discontinued.

VAT included.
Message inside each card reads; ‘Merry Christmas.’
Item total: £28.10
Postage and packing: £6.90

TOTAL: £35.00 GBP

Please allow 14 days for delivery.

Buy Now.

November 20, 2020November 20, 2020

Emma Goes Live on the Radio

Emma Sprawson talks to Lester Jones on the morning show at Omnium Radio, (20/11/20) about Mindful Art Club(R), a unique support group, that tackles social isolation and mental health in Plymouth, Devon, UK.

Listen now to find out how Mindful Art Club continues to bring people together in a safe way, during a year when we were asked to socially distance ourselves from one another.

Skip to seven minutes in to try a quick mindful drawing exercise.

Try an online group or grab some free mindful colouring pages by signing up to our mailing list. (We never sell or share email addresses, we only send you a friendly monthly message to tell you about our latest low-cost, local events.)

November 13, 2020

Double Win For Community Art Group

We were pleased to see we’ve hit the headlines again, on page 11 of The Plymouth Chronicle. You can read the latest issue online.

Double Win for Community Art Group

Plymouth’s first and only Mindful Art Club are celebrating receiving £250 funding, and £3000 worth of business support. The £250 was awarded to them by Plymouth Octopus Project, to cover some of their volunteer expenses, and the year-long business support package has been offered to them by The Real Ideas Organisation.

Peggy Melmoth and Emma Sprawson had only been running community art groups for a few months when the coronavirus lockdown forced them to cancel all of their groups. They immediately began offering online versions of all their sessions using Zoom video conferencing software and broadcasting to Facebook Live. Before lockdown their groups had been part-funded by individual voluntary donations, but since the end of March 2020 Peggy and Emma have been running the groups purely as a volunteers.

When lockdown restrictions began to ease in July, they started running small outdoor mindful art groups in a park in Plympton, and then in August they launched a new weekly group at The Sunflower Women’s Centre in Plymouth. They now run four weekly groups around Plympton and Plymouth, and continue to run their free online group for those who can’t make it to a real-life session.

“We started Mindful Art Club to improve mental health and social connection in the Plymouth community by offering mutual aid support groups, and teaching mindfulness and art for self-care. We were literally trying to fight social isolation at a time when we were all advised to isolate ourselves!”
Peggy

“We used to be part of the support team at Broadreach House addiction treatment centre. When Broadreach closed last year we were both made redundant, but decided that we still wanted to use our skills to support people in the community.”
Emma

In October The Real Ideas Organisation offered a number of free membership packages worth over £3,000 each, to entrepreneurial people with ideas that they thought could become brilliant businesses. To apply for a fully funded Start Something membership Peggy and Emma submitted a written business proposal and a three minute video outlining their ideas.

Peggy said, “We are so excited to win this, and are really looking forward to networking with the other businesses that won a place.”

The fully funded membership package from Real Ideas gives Mindful Art Club access to workspace at Ocean Studios in Royal William Yard, business support mentors and access to events, workshops and one to one coaching. The Start Something project is part of the iMayflower project and has been supported by The Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, who fund the Cultural Development Fund, which is administered by Arts Council England.

Emma said, “Just after winning the Start Something membership we also received £250 funding from Plymouth Octopus Project (POP), which covers some of our expenses volunteering at The Sunflower Women’s Centre.”

POP offers funding advice, business and planning support to Plymouth’s voluntary sector.

The Sunflower Women’s Centre is a women’s only outreach centre set up by Trevi House in 2016. Sunflower is a trauma-informed women’s wellbeing hub, providing opportunities for any woman who has support needs.

“We have been very happy to have had Peggy and Emma come into the Sunflower Women’s Centre and give their time volunteering to run their wonderful Mindful Art group for our women. This has been a valuable service and given many of our women support and some purpose and stability, with their patience and gentle listening ears during the lockdown period.”
Paula Carnell, Team Lead

To keep updated about Mindful Art Club’s latest weekly groups, online sessions and wellbeing courses sign up to the mailing list in the top right corner. We’ll send you some mindful colouring pages to soothe your mind while at home!

November 3, 2020

Our Plans For Lockdown

November Lockdown: We have made the difficult decision to postpone our in-person meetings for the moment. We will continue to offer our weekly online group via Facebook and Zoom every Tuesday at 10am. Participants can watch live on Facebook, or message us for the Zoom link. Let’s stay connected! Our Facebook page is Facebook.com/MindfulArtClub

Wellbeing Course Postponed

We are still taking bookings for our new wellbeing course at Plympton Rees Wellbeing Hub. However, the start date has been postponed to Tuesday 8th December 2020

We hope to be back in the community offering support, mindfulness and art as soon as possible.

Keep safe.

Peggy and Emma

November 2, 2020October 27, 2020

She Avoided Her Craft Room: This is Why

This is a guest post, republished with kind permission from a member of Mindful Art Club.

My Craft Room

Whilst in therapy I discovered the value, joy and fun that comes with crafting. I’m good at some crafts and a complete novice at others, but I wanted to try everything!

I used to be scared of trying new things. I was terrified of failing, but not now, (another benefit of counselling!) I try new crafts and enjoy the process, even if the end result isn’t quite what I had in mind.

I’m crafting for fun, relaxation, sense of achievement and for the physiotherapy it gives to some of my aching joints.

I wanted a space to craft… and only for crafting!

So, I turned my spare bedroom into my craft room. A large table, a smaller table, a storage unit and lots and lots of boxes to contain my stash; yarn, fabric, kits, paints, pencils and books. The list goes on. I have lamps, an ironing board and the most comfortable bed to rest on when tired. I was really pleased with how it turned out. I loved it.

But I didn’t use it. I would look in. I would go in and rearrange things, but I didn’t use it.

What happens when you finally get what you’ve wanted? I felt scared of the new possibilities open to me. I felt I didn’t deserve it. So I made excuses as to why I wasn’t using it.

Then came three days: Friday, Saturday and Sunday. I had no plans. Nobody wanted or needed me, and I had no spare money to take myself out. So I was brave, and gave myself permission to go in and use my room.

In those three days I learnt that I did deserve the wonder that is my craft room. I was free to let my inner girl out to play. Ribbons, buttons, bows, fabric, coloured pencils, paints and glitter. It all came out! We played and we crafted, my inner child and me.

My craft room is now my physical safe space. In my room I work hard on complicated projects and I chill out colouring in children’s and adults colouring books. I have a go at crafts new to me and don’t worry about the result – well, not too much! I have some success and some not so successful, and I keep them all. They mark another stage in my journey. I’ve discovered I can try and fail, and my world doesn’t end.

It is a safe place for me to be me, and for me to have a go at life.

Shona.

October 29, 2020October 29, 2020

New Group: Royal William Yard

Want to learn to manage stress in a creative way?

Want to meet new people without feeling awkward?

Want to relax your busy mind, without the practice and discipline needed for meditation?

You just found the easy answer!

Our new art group at 1pm on Friday afternoons at Ocean Studios, Royal William Yard, Plymouth, offers a safe, easy-going space to have coffee, try guided mindfulness and do some art, just for fun. There is absolutely no talent required, so if you haven’t done anything creative since school that’s fine. It really is the taking part that counts. (Sorry for sounding so cliched but it’s true!)

Event Space Ocean Studios

Booking

Booking is essential due to restricted numbers during the pandemic. Message us to confirm your place. The group costs £2.00

If you arrive around 12.45pm you can grab a coffee at the Ocean Studios Cafe, then head upstairs to the Event Space on the right, where you will find Mindful Art Club. You will need to wear a mask to enter the café, but once you are seated at our (socially distanced) art table you can remove your mask for the duration of the group.

How to find us

Ocean Studios, The Factory Cooperage, Royal William Yard, Plymouth PL1 3RP.

Plymouth city centre is 20-minute walk or a 12-minute cycle away. Find us at The Factory Cooperage, opposite Las Iguanas with the red telephone box.

Drive

From Plymouth City Centre take A374 to Durnford Street in Stonehouse. From Cornwall take the Tamar Bridge, A38, A3064, B3396 and A374, continue onto Durnford St until you reach the yard. There are plenty of Pay and Display car parking spaces at Royal William Yard.

Bus

The number 34 bus travels from the city centre and stops at the Royal William Yard roundabout.

Boat

The ferry runs every hour from the Barbican to Royal William Yard, or you can travel from Cornwall on the Cremyll Ferry to Stonehouse.

Read more details about accessibility at Ocean Studios.

Feeling unsure? Send us a message and we can chat. We’d love to see you there.

October 27, 2020November 7, 2020

How to Reduce Stress in 8-Weeks (or Less!)

Do you suffer from stress or worry?

Want to practice art for self-care?

Looking for a fun and easy way to learn mindfulness?

Then you’re going to love our new 8-week wellbeing course!

We’ve been testing this course out on a small group of people who agreed to give us feedback on the course content. Here’s what they told us;

The ‘work’ we did with Emma and Peggy in the group gently helped us to listen to ourselves and each other.
On the surface the art projects are simple, and the mindfulness gentle….. but I allowed myself to let go of preconceptions and BE IN THE MOMENT within the group. I was amazed at how my child-like art work was just what I needed to get in touch with my inner healing me.
The mindful training got me so interested, that I now start my day with mindful meditation.
As with most groups you get out as much as you put in… I have ‘worked hard’. I have listened and shared, and supported other members of the group. I am leaving with mindfulness a part of my daily life, and am more confident in trying new art practices. I also have a new set of friends.
Wellbeing Course Student

The next course begins on 17th November 2020, in Plympton, at The Rees Centre. Places are very limited due to Covid-19 safety measures, so it will be first-come, first-served. In the New Year 2021 this course will be on sale at £120. However, for this month only we are offering the course at HALF PRICE! £59 for eight weeks, including all of the course materials.

EDIT: Due to the UK November lockdown this course will now start on 8th December 2020.

Author: Peggy Melmoth

New in 2021: Free Online Course

We’re Back Next Week!

Things to look forward to in December 2020 include: