Blue Isaac Crafts I set out on my craft journey after taking early retirement from the NHS as a mental health nurse and manager. My job had been incredibly stressful, and I didn’t have a great deal of time to pursue a lot of hobbies, but now was my time to do the things I had always wanted to do. I started out with some courses on candle making and I started a website ‘Blue Isaac Candle Company’ to sell the candles I made. As time went on and I did several more craft courses, I began to make many more things than candles; silver and resin jewellery and other resin products, etc., and so changed the name to Blue Isaac Crafts. The name ‘Blue Isaac’ comes from my son’s beloved ‘blue’ Staffordshire bull terrier, Isaac and he is my logo. Sadly, Isaac passed away in 2024, and I am so pleased that I have a lasting tribute to this beautiful soul, even though, I can still have a tear in my eye when I look at him. My mam has always been a talented crafter, and she has taught me many crafts and therefore was delighted that I also began to do crafts, and we were able to explore some new ones together. She came across a course for Chigiri-e (a Japanese paper art), and we attended this and had a great day. I continued with Chigiri-e exploring new ways to use it, decorating vases, candle jars, trinket boxes, etc. I really enjoy being inspired by the things I see and love getting requests for personalised objects, a vase featuring a lady’s two cats, being one of them. With my background and continued work in mental health, I understand the value of a rewarding hobby and pastime, on mental well-being. I enjoy Chigiri-e so much, I would like to pass this on to others and so after doing some one-to-one sessions, I decided to start some workshops teaching others to do this lovely Japanese paper art.