Skills: Podcasting · Telephony · Narration · Vocal Range · Digital Audio Workstations · Digital Audio · Voice Mail · Voice Services · Narrator · Voiceovers · Voice Acting
All Artist / Creative
Teach Me is the brainchild of Kent artists Yolanda and John Houston who have identified that many people are interested in crafts and want to learn or develop new skills in a friendly environment.
Teach Me courses aim to help participants express the creativity they already possess – sometimes without them even realising it. The courses fulfil a number of things – teaching new skills (or help people refine the skills they have); they enable participants to create something to be proud of; and they help them learn a little about the art or craft they’re doing.
Top quality materials and equipment are used, so participants can rest assured that they’ll be working with the best. Everybody gets something to take home with them and Teach Me’s tutors know everyone will be proud to show off what they have created.
Courses are held at Teach Me’s dedicated studios at 3 Cockreed Lane, New Romney, Kent TN28 8JH and apart from expert tuition, they include all materials, tools and safety equipment. Most courses are a full day, although a series of daytime and evening courses are also proving very popular.
The groups are usually no more than six people – so that lots of one to one assistance can be provided and equipment can be easily accessed.
To check out our courses and content visit www.teachmecourses.co.uk. Payment can be made in advance online or on the day for day and evening courses.
An excellent day. John and Yolanda were very welcoming we learnt a lot and produced some very credible art works to take home. Friends and family were very impressed. I would definitely recommend the course to anyone who would like to have a go at painting in acrylics. (An excellent lunch was also provided!)
Lynn Western
Workshops generally are from 10.00am to 4.00pm
David John Griffin is a writer, author of mystery books, graphic designer, and occasional electronic music composer, who lives with his wife Susan in a large town by the Thames in Kent, UK. He is currently working on the first draft of his sixth novel.
David’s on-going mission as an author is to produce absorbing, page-turning stories with a literary depth. His novels, with genres covering mystery, gothic, psychological, and paranormal, always have elements of magical realism within them. When writing short stories, he aims for that surprising “twist in the tail” at the end of each one.
His first book, published by Urbane Publications in 2015, is a gothic/paranormal novel called The Unusual Possession of Alastair Stubb. His literary/psychological novel, Infinite Rooms, was published a year after. The novella and collection of short stories called Two Dogs At The One Dog Inn And Other Stories (magical realism/paranormal) was published in January 2017 by Urbane Publications. Following that, he published a sci-fi time travel adventure called Abbie and the Portal. The urban fantasy novel called Turquoise Traveller was published in 2019.
His latest complete novel called When The Lover Lies is currently represented by Matthew Smith of Exprimez Literary Agency.
One of his short stories was shortlisted for The HG Wells Short Story competition 2012 and published in an anthology. He has had at least seven more stories published in other anthologies and magazines.
“Creative writing is a passion and a lifelong learning experience” David John Griffin
“Writing a novel is like pushing a boulder up a mountain but it’s great when you reach the top ” David John Griffin
The Unusual Possession of Alastair Stubb: "A beautifully described dark, Gothic tale..." "Unpredicatable, creepy - and often very funny." "Unusual and Gripping"
Infinite Rooms: "A Masterpiece of Literary Surrealism" "An extraordinary novel. " "Such an extraordinary and different read"
Two Dogs At The One Dog Inn And Other Stories: "a timeless and classic quality". "Tales of the very unexpected indeed" "Very entertaining"
Abbie And The Portal: "Great premise, scintillating pace, and a most intriguing plot". "Utterly absorbing" "Enjoyable read."
Turquoise Traveller: “The descriptions are powerful and vivid, and in some ways Stave's nightmarish journey reminded me of a computer game, with he as the hero passing through various 'levels' of skill and understanding” "Another solid story from a gifted writer". "A psychological adventure into the dreaming mind"
I can be contacted by phone on any day from Monday to Sunday, after 11am and before 10pm.
Carol M. Salter is an author of contemporary fantasy, paranormal and Sci-Fi novels, selling globally. Currently, she has seven independantly published novels for sale via Waterstones and her Estore including; the Witch on the Warpath trilogy, set in Kent, and the 18+ Aquasapien series. Her work is also avialable on kindle.
In the summer of 2023, Carol is set to release her first picture book, Chicken Wizard. With more to follow in this genre, and another novel in editing, Between Here & Hell, its proving to be an exciting year.
In 2021, Carol founded the Inspirations Writers Group, which she still facilitates to this day. Based at Westgate Library, they meet on the 4th Saturday of every month at 10.30. Carol publishes members works in the form of group anthologies. In 2021, their anthology Green, won the Denise Robertson National Anthology Award.
always
Music and sound composer for film, games and other visual media.
Sound and music production including recording, editing, mixing, restoration and mastering for musicians and other clients.
I create immersive and emotive music under the name Slow Worm Sound Works using a combination of electronic and traditional instruments alongside field recordings and the use of experimental audio manipulation techniques.
I am a core member of the post-punk band Normil Hawaiians with records originally released by Illuminated Records in the early 80s and lately re-issued (also on vinyl) by the London label, Upset The Rhythm. We have been fortunate enough to have been given positive reviews for all our releases from a range of publications including Wire, Mojo and The Quietus. Other Ways of Knowing, a track from our first album, was used in the Lemaire Fashion Show of Fall-Winter 2019/20 and another track, Martin, from our second album, featured in the February playlist last year from fashion house The Row. This February, the song ‘Yellow Rain’ from our debut 1983 album ‘More Wealth Than Money’ again formed part of The Row’s highly respected playlist. We are currently in the process of putting together quite a significant and eclectic collection of new material. As well as coming up with many of the creative ideas, I am responsible for recording, editing, mixing and mastering the work and I am hoping all will be completed and ready for release by the end of the year. I have also recently mastered Bertie Marshall’s (formerly known as Berlin and founder member of the Bromley Contingent) retrospective album, Exhibit, also on Upset The Rhythm records.
From a personal perspective, I have an interest in exploring alternative approaches to sound/music creation. I believe that composition is simply a process of discovery and that the most interesting music comes either from searching deeper and further or from foraging with an unorthodox technique. I like to use found sounds as compositional sources in a variety of ways, especially when these are linked to specific spaces. For example, waves lapping the shoreline of Tayinloan on the West coast of Scotland morph into a darkly submarine and slow moving harmonic eddy in the track NR728524 (to be included on the new NH album). In this piece the only sound source is the recording of the waves. These are gradually and progressively filtered using Sophia Poirier’s wondrous Rez Synth to sculpt form from a block of natural sound.
Alda Dizdari - Concert Violinist
I have worked with Simon on various occasions, more notably Simon recorded my audiobook “Kiss Me Again; A Memoir of Elgar in Unusual Places”. What was even more unusual than the book was our setting, we recorded during lockdown and due to restrictions we did the whole recording outdoors, with the birds singing in the background. Simon did an excellent job. He was endlessly patient and spent hours and hours working on getting the right balance and perfect effects. His suggestions were so wise and I am really happy with the result of our collaboration. I am lucky to consider him a friend.
Bill Regard - TV and film producer and director, composer
I was very lucky to meet Simon just before covid struck and we worked in my studio / office and then over Zoom with some clever screen sharing. We created 10 tracks - 5 songs and 5 instrumentals which got called Left Brain: Right Brain. Simon’s tech skills made the process seem very easy when in fact Logic is far from easy partly because it’s so vast! Simon was prepared to get stuck in and if needed lay down a bass line or whatever, when he thought I was struggling, which was often, and he brought his wife Zinta in to do back up some brilliant vocals which made a huge difference to the tracks.
Simon was excellent to work with and very patient. We explored the depths of Logic together and came out the other end with some great tracks.
Forged in Creativity.
We creatively design and traditionally hand-craft one-of-a-kind pieces of jewellery in our workshop, which is situated next to our shop, just a stone’s throw away from Canterbury Cathedral.
The inimitable creative partnership of Husband and Wife, Goldsmith and Designer.
As a Designer with an in depth knowledge of Gemstones and Diamond grading, Rose loves to combine ideas and inspirations in colour and flowing movement. She possesses a unique way of getting to know each client personally, ensuring design commissions truly capture elements of their personality and convey emotion.
This is the ideal complement to André, an Award-Winning Master Goldsmith, who has over thirty years experience at the bench. His close relationship with Rose allows him to fully appreciate her creative vision. He takes the piece from the page and brings them to life with balance, harmonious form and enduring beauty.
André and Rose were schooled by a German Master, just like the original founder Ortwin Thyssen, in the ancient practices of the traditional jewellery maker. Over the last four decades they have sought to continue and hone this art. Combining their talents and bringing originality and authenticity together. All pieces are designed and hand-crafted in-house. We use the finest and highest-quality materials to ensure that they stand the test of time.
We pride ourselves in the signature beauty, variation, perfection and precision of our jewellery. Welcome. Visit our shop to experience our work first-hand. If you have a design idea you would like to explore, please contact us to arrange a Design Consultation. We feel incredibly blessed to work together and be trusted with such valuable work.
You can follow us on Instagram and Facebook for more images and tales from the bench.
Appointments available from 11am to 4pm, please call/email to book.
Handmade pottery.
My work is inspired by my love of nature and the flora & fauna of the North Kent marshes where I live. I like to use the structures & textures found in natural forms juxtaposed with textures from found objects to produce an unusual but affordable range of work that is both decorative & functional. I use fine porcelain clay which reflects the delicacy of the textures and soft underglaze colours to enhance the decoration.
Recently I have added a range of Grey & Black Vases and a collection of Planters to my work (pots for plants, bulbs & succulents), both handmade using a various stoneware and earthenware clays & glazes and juxtaposing impressions from found objects & natural forms for decoration.
My workshop at Creek Creative is open for visitors by appointment. All the pieces are individual please contact me for current availability and prices.
My workshop at Creek Creative is open by appointment only.
Mature Photographer and Trainer now semi-retired photographing and shooting a variety of subjects for fun and enjoyment. Happy to undertake small projects and assignments that perk my interests for expenses and running costs.
Generally shooting, wildlife, model shoots, cosplay, landscapes, historical places and abstract
Hello, I’m Alex and I’m a photographer providing a range of creative services to businesses and individuals.
I provide commissioned photography to any business or organisation, videography, B2B training, photographic holidays, 1 day workshops for photo enthusiasts and hand made book making.
My primary service is bespoke photography for organisations of all sizes for illustrating their website, social media and marketing work.
My photography is commissioned mostly by businesses and also within the tourism sector where I’ve specialised as a landscape artist and commercial photographer for over 20 years.
Through my B2B training, I help small businesses understand how to use their kit to create compelling photography for themselves in association with various tourism bodies and local business groups.
My passion for landscape enables me to lead a series of residential photographic holidays to some wonderful destinations here and abroad where guests can learn and enjoy landscape photography with the support of myself and my colleague through our Tripod Travels photo workshops.
During lockdown I pioneered the first online hand made photo book making workshop and I’ve taught over 300 people to become book makers! My workshops involve the basics of book making, printing and Japanese stab binding.
I also provide a small scale video service for businesses that require short, professional, fully edited and affordable video with music, interviews, cutaways and sound in a dynamic production for their website and marketing work.
Finally, I serve on the board of a local charity, Whitstable Maritime and we hope to restore the last Oyster Yawl built in Whitstable to a working ship and we also promote the use of our nationally recognised Whitstable Walking Trail. These provide many opportunities for anyone creative seeking to make work inspired by the area, the boat, the trail and the history, heritage and contemporary sea/landscapes they embrace. Please speak to me if you wish to be involved!
C Dier, Maidstone Tourism:
‘First and foremost I enormously enjoyed working with Alex Hare. He is truly a professional photographer, not only brilliant at landscapes but also very good at working with people.
I really appreciated right at the start of our photographic project was our meetings; in reviewing the pictures that we had initially and then making decisions about what we needed for the future and how they fitted into our destination management plan, how they should and feel, alongside the messages that the images sent out to potential visitors.
I really appreciated his creativity in thinking about what we needed and how we should frame those shots. Alex enabled me to see what we could do to make these unique and at the same time run comfortably alongside our neighbours Visit Kent, so that our image messages were complimentary. It took time and different seasons to get what we needed and the right weather conditions too, so Alex was incredibly flexible in helping us to get the right pictures, at the right time of year, with the right lighting, so they look amazing.
He also had very good ideas on locations and how best to use them. Mostly we had to use non-professional models and he was great with the children too.
Alex is also very good at making sure that all the paperwork for models is in place for permissions etc.
I have enjoyed every picture ever since on a personal and professional level. When I have a budget again for photography I would without a moments hesitation ask Alex to help me do the project.’
K Hearnden, Visit Canterbury:
‘Visit Canterbury commissioned Alex to create a full library of images for our marketing work to include city and coastal landscapes and lifestyle images of people enjoying the heritage and lifestyle aspects Canterbury and Whitstable have to offer, and which also needed to resonate with our different target audiences and campaigns we run.
He successfully applied his expert knowledge of landscapes and technical skills at lighting people and indoor spaces, like the pubs and restaurants we wanted to feature, and produced strong images that not only matched our brief but were delivered both on time and on budget.
Alex was extremely professional and worked really well with all the non-professional models we used. I wouldn't hesitate to work with him again or recommend his work to others.’
Pam Foden, Visit England & Pam Foden Assocs:
‘I have worked with Alex Hare for more than seven years, initially on VisitEngland commissions including B2B photography for the accommodation and visitor attraction sector (print and online) and event photography.
Alex also supplied articles for VisitEngland’s Quality Edge magazine and ran ‘hands-on’ training courses for businesses of all sizes. His ‘people’ skills are second to none. We didn’t have a budget for professional models, but Alex could easily persuade the most reluctant operator, team member or customer to be photographed (and sign the model release form).
There was always keen competition within the VisitEngland team to join Alex on a shoot. He is good company, well-organised and quickly builds a good rapport with the host business, adapting easily to any constraints and ensuring minimal disruption for the business.
He was always an excellent ambassador for VisitEngland.
Latterly Alex has contributed to my freelance commissions for Sheffield Council (DEF project) and Coastal West Sussex (Activity/Experience photography). The businesses and clients were delighted with his work and delivery of the images post-shoot has always been prompt.
His understanding and interpretation of each brief was excellent and the quantity and quality of images supplied from each shoot regularly exceeded our expectations.’
The Margate Bookie is a charity that brings people together through reading and writing. It runs the town’s litfest, hosts workshops and teaches writing skills.
Our next festival is 20-22 October 2023. We’ll be at Dreamland, Turner Contemporary and lots of special venues around Margate.
Subscribe and follow to be at the front of the queue.
October 20 to 22 2023
Jill Holder is an artist living and working in the South East of England. Brought up during the austerity following World War II she learnt to amuse herself with the things she found around her – A discarded matchbox, pebbles, scraps of paper, beads etc. Her favourite Christmas present was given to her by her father when she was 13. It consisted of a box full of odd bits of mirror, cogs, a small engine, tiny light bulbs, bits of wire, and more.
Following school, she joined the foundation course at Croydon College of Art where she was lucky enough to study under Clive Barker and Bruce McLean. Then, as family pressure insisted, she studied “something worthwhile” choosing Fashion at St Martin’s in London.
She worked in fashion, interiors, even floristry, before giving up everything to concentrate on her work as an artist.
She is still doing what she did as a child. She says “Primarily, I make things. With paint, paper, clay, found objects and glue and anything else that stays still long enough. I also like interfacing with the public. So often a chance remark will start a whole new chain of thought.”
For “Open the Box” in 2011, (Creek Creative, Faversham) she filled one hundred boxes with treasures, then placed each box, closed, on a shelf for visitors to open and explore.
In 2014, interested in the human passion for collecting, she enjoyed collaborating with fellow artist Bob Lamoon as part of Holder and Lamoon. Their show, “The Essence of Memory”, following their Artist’s Residency at the Beaney House of Art and Knowledge, Canterbury, was packed with comments and thoughts about the subject, all packaged in an odd juxtaposition of boot market finds, painting and sculpture. Both scholarly and humorous the show delighted visitors.
In 2015 she was involved in an artist led show “A Handful of Dust” (Pie Factory, Margate), a hard hitting collection of new work by eight artists who wanted to raise awareness of the hundreds of thousands of children caught up in the adult world of war. This has set a precedent for more serious work from this artist on a subject that still occupies her thoughts. “For me,” she says “there is no glory, nothing to wave flags about, only destruction and decay. Caught in the middle of every conflict are children. Children. They are starving through associated famine, losing limb or life in attacks, losing their families and their security, losing their innocence and grace as they are taught to use weapons to kill.”
There have been other exhibitions in between but recently Jill has been concentrating on family affairs. Although she has only taken part in shows in a small way she has built a new studio, continued with her practice and is now turning her thoughts towards exhibiting again.
A photographer, writer, explorer and philosopher, Andreea was born in 70s Romania and made England her home in the early noughties. Andreea has a Masters in Photography from Falmouth University and a BSc in Philosophy from the University of Bucharest. Her creative practice explores questions of personal identity and memory especially through the lens of her dual cultural heritage. Andreea is also a photography tutor and runs a photography tour business with her photographer partner Matt.
Andreea’s most recent project The Fabric of Memory was produced during the final year of her MA studies and is being exhibited at the Horsebridge Art Centre in Whitstable in February 2023.
For this project Andreea traveled back to her native homeland in an attempt to rediscover and reconnect with her roots. Marcel Proust said ‘the past is hidden somewhere outside the realm, beyond the reach of intellect, in some material object’. Andreea’s visual story explores this notion, driven by place, and is a constant dialogue between past and present, familiarity and estrangement. New images, all produced using old family film cameras and expired period film, are interspaced, and sometimes juxtaposed with family archive images and snippets of discursive memory in a visually coherent way. Andreea creates an atemporal space where there is deliberate ambiguity about what’s past and what’s present, and where empathetic connections are made with older family members as individuals, rather than in their familial roles.