I’m not big on New Year’s resolutions but one of the things I promised myself I would do in 2025, was to get on top of my social media accounts, particularly Instagram, and learn how to produce ‘better’ posts; posts that were more interesting and that would perhaps, include a reel, although I had no idea how to edit or produce one! Being someone who finds the whole social media thing time consuming and challenging, I only knew how to post a photo, would often forget to add any hashtags and had never tagged anyone before, the starting point was about as low as it could be. The other aspect I was struggling with was what to post about? Did I have anything interesting to say, let alone on a regular basis?

Detail from my first Instagram post of 2025

Feeling that I had to start somewhere, I bit the bullet in January and put together a collage of my veneers to welcome in the New Year. I used Canva (an online graphic design tool) to put my images and text together, added some hashtags and hit ‘share’. This was followed by 5 images at the start of a Pattern Week short course, run by American textile designer Bonnie Christine. I signed up for the class for two reasons: I wanted to learn how to produce repeat patterns digitally, and I thought it would give me lots of material to post – well, for a week anyway! Although I finished the course and achieved goal 1, I seriously missed goal 2 and all my repeat pattern designs remained on the hard drive. Here’s a sample of what I created using the ginko leaves in the second image of that post…

Sample pattern designed whilst attending Bonnie Christine’s online short course

However, I didn’t want to give up, and later that month, while I was doing my rota day in Heather Jane’s in Tavistock where I’m stocked, I managed to produce my first reel, with some text, a tag and some hashtags – yayyyyy! Admittedly, it took a short course with Kat Coroy, and watching a few tutorials on Youtube to get me through the production but, after a whole morning spent shooting, editing and typing, I got there. I repeated the process when I got to Zebediah’s (another shop where I have work, in Launceston) a week or so later which I managed to produce a bit more quickly.

February saw me post about my new Sprig Collection which I had just launched on my website and I then decided to face my biggest demon of all – a piece to camera. I won’t tell you how long it took to get the lighting right, to say what I wanted to say, to remember to say what my name is and to turn the camera on etc. etc. but it’s out there now, warts and all as they say!

Just as I was beginning to feel I was struggling for subject matter, I stumbled across an Instagram challenge titled March Meet The Maker, run by Joanne Hawker, a stationery designer, based in Somerset. Joanne organises the challenge every year and had set up a series of prompts for designers/makers/crafters and artists to use as themes for their social media posts throughout March. Yes, this was just what I needed!! I had images of my work, my studio, my tools and a few videos of my production process already, and I could do more. And, as we approach the end of March, I’m proud to say, I haven’t missed a day yet. My posts might not be rocking the world or going viral, but I’m getting quicker at creating the content and I’m posting regularly. Best of all, I feel less intimidated by the whole social media beastie!! So, if you fancy getting to know me better, pop on over to my Instagram and see what I’ve been up to!

Facing my social media demons

Inspiration is everywhere