Karen Collins

I'm the founder of Naturally useful a collective of makers making beautiful natural products from locally sourced materials, I love to source raw materials from the environment sustainable of course, hedgerow, grasses, hazels, we do grow all our willow and buy fleeces form local farmers. I met Sam through a mutual friend and loved his vision of the sheiling product, showing people a sustainable way to live and how our ancestors used to do it. I love to teach about what we can harvest from our own back door and then show how to transform this material into something useful, that enlivens our soul and beautify our homes. I feel very blessed that I can spend a lot of my time making using my hands as tools it gives me a great sense of peace and fulfilment. I hope all my participants feel the fulfilment of making something by hand. I have seen the shieling project go from strength to strength over the 5 years, my first visited and had to stay in a tent on very bumpy ground, listening to the deer running past the tent in the night, and wandering if I was going to get trampled on as there was a heck of a lot racing past.