@flarelitmag.bsky.social

FLARE Magazine Show us your flare!

My artwork is in the latest issue of Flare Magazine, which was released on Saturday! Check it out to see my contribution… There’s some fabulous
#poetry #flashfiction, #art #music #mixedmedia - all on the theme of #medicine for this issue.

#chronicillness #mecfs #disability

flare-magazine.com

orange, pink, and red background rays with white background middle: Special Issue 3: Medication is out! Check out flare-magazine.com to read the issue; picture of pink and blue/teal-ish pill

Special Issue 3: Medication is out now! Go read the issue here: flare-magazine.com/special-mini...

Our contributors (1/3):
Barbara Krasner
Bella Melardi
CA Scarborough
Chloe Marika Glass
@2heartcore4u.bsky.social
Jhoanna Parvati
Jo Marjoribanks
Maia Elizabeth

Across the middle are three images. Two short a smiling white woman with short orange hair. She has a novel called Awakened, written by her, with her. The central image of the front cover of her novel which features a crow with the skyline of London as its feathers on its back. Above these images are the words: I love this quote from the novel Awakened by chronically ill author Laura Elliott Below the images is the quote from the book: “And at the end of each day, he can say, Look, I made this. Before I sat down, this wasn't here, and now it is, because of me. There's something hopeful about that. Even if it's never used, he will still have made it. Something will exist because of him that didn't exist before.” @craftingapaththroughillness

I love this quote from the novel Awakened by chronically ill author Laura Elliott

#creativity #crafting #creating #CraftSky #making #purpose #hope #disabledauthor #dystopianfiction #chronicillness #chronicpain #mecfs #ME/CFS

Photograph of avintage wooden children’s weaving loom with some practice weaving on it in purple and turquoise wool. Stood behind it is the lid of the box the loom came in, showing a picture of it with a red and yellow weaving on it.

A photo of me from the mid seventies. I am a chubby, grinning toddler sitting outside in a washing up bowl of water, playing with a small ball and a toy bucket.

Playing with my new toy - a vintage children’s loom, because I am a vintage child! 🧶😀

#CraftSky #creativity #fiberarts #weaving #laploom #newskill #learningthroughplay #vintage #vintagefinds #vintagetoys #seventiesvibes

Against a bright coloured swirly background, black text reads: So often, enthusiasm is thwarted by how unwell I am. Ideas and desires are unattainable. But then I count up all the ways I have achieved, overcome and thrived - even in the depths of severe chronic illness - and I know I am living as well as I can. I am living a creative life. @craftingapaththroughillness

How do you live as well as you can amidst all that chronic illness brings with it?

#mecfs #ME/CFS #invisibleillness #chronicillness #chronicpain #creativity #fibromyalgia #autoimmune #glimmers #smallwins #achievements

Knitters have the power!
#Craftivism
#Knitters
#FiberArts

Two chicken eggs have been blown to leave just the shells and painted a soft, pale sage green. Decorative holes have been pierced in them. One of the eggs has cream threaded embroidered into the holes to depict a spiral.

Happy Easter to all who celebrate! May this spring bring you new ideas to nurture until they fully hatch.

#Easter #springvibes #spring #eggs #sewing #eastereggs #eggdecorating #spiral #newideas #creative #embroidery #CraftSky #CreativeSky

A feather quill and an old fashioned pair of wire rim glasses sit on top of a piece of paper with a poem typed on it. The text reads: There are mythical birds in the Forest of my heart who Flourish on breadcrumbs of pain. They digest, they thrive, They tidy the terrain. Lightened, I join them in flight. Germaine Hypher @craftingapaththroughillness

A Mythology of Birds by Germaine Hypher

#poem #poetry #pain #chronicpain #emotionalpain #birds #comfort #creativewriting

Do you have fabric or embroidery thread you can donate for us to use in our gentle craftivism please? — Craftivist Collective Do you have fabric or thread that you can post to the Craftivist Collective to a London, UK address please?

www.craftivist-collective.com/good-news/do...

Exactly the same list of conditions here and the aphasia can be epic, can’t it? My husband’s lucky if I get his name right! 😅

A photo of an orange black and white butterfly perched on a flower stalk with a blurred background of greenery features the following text: On strong pain meds but still trying to communicate, a butterfly becomes a BUFFERFLUFF and I am reminded that my brain is always CREATIVE.

On strong pain meds but still trying to communicate, a butterfly becomes a BUFFERFLUFF and I am reminded that my brain is always CREATIVE.

#chronicillness #chronicpain #mecfs #ME/CFS #migraine #fibromyalgia #invisibleillness #creative #creativity #aphasia

A white line drawing on black background of a standing figure with spirals for hair, no face, a spiral for a torso and over long arms hanging down and spindly legs. The hands and feet are denoted by ton weights. The drawing is called A Ton of Ideas.

A white line drawing on black background of a figure behind a table with a double spiral for their face, a spiral for a torso and coiled lines for hands holding a hugely oversized pencil and an even larger paint brush. Scribbles forming a large cross is laid over the image of the figure painting and drawing on the table. The drawing is called Push Don’t Push.

A white line drawing on black background of a lying down figure with spirals for their head and torso they are holding knitting needles and surround by tangled lines. The drawing is called Flat Out Tangled.

A white line drawing on black background of a semi-prone figure with cross hatching for a head and more cross hatching forming the rough shape of a torso and where legs would be. Arms are over long and devoured by lines ending in spirals for hands with further curls for fingers. The drawing is called Our Lady of a Thousand Sleeps.

Creativity In An Ill Body - a series of sketches.

#chronicillness #invisibleillness #chronicpain #chronicfatigue #creativity #art #drawing #blackandwhite

Blue text in a handwriting font reads: "I don't care if people think I can't draw, I'm just interested in communicating certain ideas in a certain way." David Shrigley The background is of pale watercolour leaf shapes in blues and earthy colours on creamy paper. @craftingapaththroughillness

"I don’t care if people think l can't draw, I'm just interested in communicating certain ideas in a certain way." -David Shrigley

Background watercolour experiments by Germaine Hypher

#art #drawing #painting #CraftSky #creativity #communication #imperfection #arttherapy

Green writing on a paper background posed the question: Do you want your health and creativity to interact with each other beneficially? Deep pink writing says: Then you need Crafting a Path Through Illness - Exploring Creativity While Chronically Ill. The title of the book is shown within the image of the front cover of the book itself which includes origami butterflies made from maps. Green writing says: PUBLISHED BY HAMMERSMITH BOOKS AVAILABLE AROUND THE WORLD

The back cover features a review from Louise Kenward, Editor, Moving Mountains: “Packed with ideas, suggestions, adaptations and warmth... this is a gentle companion and rich resource ... a manifesto of a book ... Offering a sense of solidarity and community, this is a wonderful collection for those recently ill and those of us who have been ill for many years, the novice crafter and the experienced creative alike.” Back page blurb: Are you looking for ways to live well and feel fulfilled amidst ongoing symptoms? Author and artist Germaine Hypher draws on her own long-term experience of illness, and creative pursuits to guide you along your path. Offering ways to achieve meaning and purpose, she also shows how living with the experiences and perspectives of ill health can have a valuable impact on creative output. Through her many insights: • Learn how arts and crafts can affect your physical and mental health. • Discover how the arts have been used alongside medicine over the centuries. • Encounter other disabled and chronically ill artists and crafters, past and present. • Connect creatively with the space around you and other people, when isolated by illness. • Explore the uses your creativity can have within the wider community. • Find tools, hacks and suggestions for making creativity more accessible to you. • Have a go at the suggested ideas and projects to help you unlock your own creative pathway. The back cover also features a review from Polly Atkin, Poet, Author of Some of Us Just Fall: “Funny, honest and full of good advice on how to live a sustainable and satisfying creative life whilst living with chronic illness, With reflection and prompts woven from decades of personal experience, from other disabled artists, and from science writing, there is much of use here to anyone who lives with illness. As Germaine writes: 'Living well with chronic illness is an art in itself'.”

Crafting a Path through Illness - exploring creativity while chronically ill - by Germaine Hypher. Available worldwide.

#chronicillness #mecfs #ME/CFS #autoimmune #disability #fibromyalgia #invisibleillness #Chronicpain #books #CraftSky #Chronicfatigue #art #writing
🎨 🧶 🪡 🧵 ✂️ ✍🏻 🧁 🌱 🎵 📷 💃 🎭

‘Join Me On a Journey with No Beginning and No End’ was my first attempt at an entirely scrap paper collage with experimental mark making and stitching onto card. I spent weeks on it, playing without expectation, at carefully paced intervals. I thoroughly enjoyed the process - which is what it was all about - and was surprised that I love the outcome too. The effect is a busy collection of colours and marks linked with drawn spirals, topography/fingerprint patterns, dots and acrylic paint applied using a small vintage woodblock stamp. Materials used: blue and white index from an old road map, lilac tissue paper, scraps of old painting experiments, kitchen paper that had been used for blotting green, yellow and purple paint from brushes, leftover purple and red coloured paper from previous uses, plain white paper with blue pen scribbles on, white acrylic paint, purple felt tip, blue fine liner pen, purple embroidery thread, and glue stick.

‘Join Me On a Journey with No Beginning and No End’

Tiny scraps of time/energy, discarded materials, and a desire to play are as conducive to creativity as I’d hoped!

See alt text for image info.

#art #collage #craftsky #recycledart #chronicillness #chronicpain #chronicfatigue #mecfs #ME/CFS

A spider web is woven from clear nylon fishing line into the gap formed by adjoining twigs that are stood up on the grass in front of a green leaved shrub. Clear beads have been threaded onto the web to resemble raindrops.

Raindrops on the Web of Life

Made from old fishing line, beads and twigs.

#mixedmedia #dreamcatcher #SpiderWeb #upcycledart #weboflife #CraftSky #beadwork #natureart

More info about submitting your contribution can be found here: www.alivewithchronicillness.com/the-anthology

ALIVE WITH CHRONIC ILLNESS The Anthology Our anthology seeks to capture what it means to live with and not in spite of chronic illness and disability. We are looking for literature that fits the theme of living with and not 'in spite of chronic illness or disability. We seek to capture moments of joy, triumph, and growth, highlighting the resilience of the disabled community whilst acknowledging the struggles and challenges that come with living with chronic illness and disability. We are looking for short pieces of literature, such as prose, poetry, and short stories (maximum 2,500 words), fiction or non-fiction. NOW ACCEPTING SUBMISSIONS

ALIVE WITH CHRONIC ILLNESS The Anthology: Letters to today's disabled youth As part of our upcoming anthology which seeks to capture what it means to live with and not in spite of chronic illness and disability. We are looking for short reflections (around 250 words), on what you would tell your younger self or a disabled child or young person. We recognise that many of us walked hallways filled with peers who didn't understand what it was like to live with a health condition, not knowing what the future would look like. Children and young people are still walking those same hallways we once did, and this is our contribution to the next generation. So if you have a moment and a few words to spare, consider writing a letter to your childhood self and to the children and young people of the future. NOW ACCEPTING SUBMISSIONS

ALIVE WITH CHRONIC ILLNESS The Anthology: Parent and carers perspectives As part of our upcoming anthology which seeks to capture what it means to live with and not in spite of chronic illness and disability. We are looking for written perspectives from parents and carers of disabled children, of up to 2,500 words. We are looking for literature that fits the theme of living with and not 'in spite of chronic illness or disability. We seek to capture moments of joy, triumph, and growth, highlighting the resilience of the disabled community whilst acknowledging the struggles and challenges that come with living with chronic illness and disability. NOW ACCEPTING SUBMISSIONS

#Chronicillness #invisibleillness #mecfs #ME/CFS #writing #Chronicpain

A watercolour, gouache and soft pastel painting, with black fineliner pen, features red and white tulips with green leaves in a bulbous white vase. The style is loose and free, not precise.

Spring is springing!

This only took about an hour and a half over separate sessions, some of it done propped up in bed, so was thoroughly enjoyable without feeling I was pushing my body too hard.

#art #painting #watercolour #gouache #pastel #mecfs #ME/CFS #chronicillness #chronicpain 🌷 💐 🎨

Lilac text on a dark purple background with hanging leaves and flowers at the top reads: ME/CFS: Art for Awareness Last day of every month, all platforms! Share any art of an endangered flower along with the hashtag #togetherendangered & #millionsmissingflowers. Allies welcome and encouraged! @millions_missing _flowers

A screenshot from the woodland trust website about campanula patula reads: This unassuming little flower has a very specific range in the UK - centred on the southern parts of the Welsh borders - and depends on disturbed, sunny ground in open woodland to germinate. It's thought the loss of coppicing regimes across its already small range made spreading bellflower even rarer. How rare is spreading bellflower? This woodland flower is classed as endangered in the UK. Generally, it can only be found between Shrewsbury and Monmouth, where populations have been recorded in open woodland and scrub habitats and on grassy banks. Genetic analysis by the National Botanic Garden of Wales found the remaining plants aren't very genetically diverse, meaning they could be less healthy and adaptable to changes in their environment and, ultimately, more vulnerable to extinction. woodlandtrust.org.uk

Further info on the campaign and my chosen flower:

A simple watercolour painting of a purple wildflower with green stems on a cream background. Lilac text in a handwritten style font reads: Endangered Species Spreading Bellflower (Campanula patula) Sound the bell for those whose lives spread vulnerably at the feet of the flourishing. Ring the bell for those whose days of vibrancy are an endangered species.

Still at the learning stage of watercolour, here’s my depiction of the endangered species Spreading Bellflower, along with a poem for fellow ME sufferers.

#millionsmissimgflowers #togetherendangered #MillionsMissing #ME/CFS #mecfs #chronicillness #chronicpain #poetry #invisibleillness #art 🎨 🌺 ✍🏻

A text: ‘Open call!’ Below it a hand-written text reads ‘Myalgic Encephalomyelitis Kills’. A text: ‘An online Group Exhibition’.

Hi! Our online art gallery, A Quiet Storm, will host an open call group exhibition on International ME/CFS Awareness Day, May 12, 2026.

The submissions will open on March 12th. Our website is currently updated to a dark theme. Full statement below!

1/9

#MECFS #pwME #OpenCall #OnlineExhibition

A photo of a black cat fast asleep in a basket full of green, cream and yellow wool.

Kiki is getting about as much done with these yarns as I am… 😅

#chronicfatigue #mecfs #ME/CFS #chronicillness #cat #sleep 🧶 🐈‍⬛

A book review for Crafting a Path Through Illness by Germaine Hypher The reviewer, Heather Ifould @cosyhooks, gives the book 5 stars. Her review is as follows: A beautifully written companion. As well as inspiration, Germaine gives us hope, reminding us that that there is no "wrong way' of creating. With a little time © creativity we can find our spark again E start to make our mark in the world however we are able. We can also use that creativity when thinking of ways we can achieve our other, general, goals. Full of fantastic information, strategies & reminders to pace exercises. I cannot recommend this book enough.

Thank you to Heather Ifould @cosyhooks over on Instagram for these words. Her full book review can be seen on Amazon.

Reading positive reviews absolutely makes my day! 🤗

#chronicillness #invisibleillness #disabled #mecfs #CraftSky #chronicpain #creativity

🧶 ✍🏻 🎨 🪡 🎭 🎵 🧵 🧁 🌱 ✏️

A collage of 3 pairs of red lips with text inside then cut from old magazines. The text is relevant to confusion about whether to speak or not and varied feelings around communication. Two of the mouths have red cross stitches in thin wool on them partially sewing them shut and handwriting on the lips themselves saying Talk Don’t Talk and other contradictory messages about speaking up vs keeping quiet. More text torn from the same old magazine is outside the lips, too, with one being cross stitched over. The background is a page of the same magazine, covered with white paint, some red tissue paper layered in and cross stitches in red yarn at two corners. Are these crosses denoting something having been done wrong or kisses?

Mixed Messages - collage using vintage magazine text, tissue paper, acrylic paint, pen and yarn.

#art #collage #mixedmedia #communication

A photo of majestic hills and the branch of a tree in the foreground has the following poem by Germaine Hypher typed in white over it: There are so many Bodies of water that have never Had the pleasure of touching my skin So many Views denied the shiver Of me breathing them in So many Riffs and beats that will never feel the Heat of me riding their backs So many Cracks in the world to Slip into

A wistful Valentine poem to the world, by me. ✍🏻

#Chronicillness #mecfs #ME/CFS #Chronicpain #chronicfatigue #invisibleillness #disability #housebound #poetry #poem #creativewriting #naturewriting

A photo of books lined up on a wooden surface with an embroidered butterfly sat next to them and a wooden latticed frame displaying dried leaves and lace standing next to them. Text above and below the books says: February 14th isn't just Valentine's Day... ...It's also International Book Giving Day. Go on, give yourself a book, too! All the books pictured are written by chronically ill authors and focus in one way or another on illness and disability. Their titles and authors are as follows: Sycorax - Nydia Heatherington Crafting a Path Through Illness - Germaine Hypher Moving Mountains - Louise Kenward Some of Us Just Fall - Polly Atkin Pain Woman Takes Your Keys - Sonya Huber Supinely Sublimely - Marion Michell A Still Life - Josie George Awakened - Laura Elliot

Look at her proud, straight spine - Crafting a Path through Illness, hanging out with her some of her chronic illness book tribe. She keeps good company, doesn’t she? They’re a friendly bunch of books, feel free to get to know them… 📖 ❤️

#books #chronicillness #mecfs #arthritis #hEDS #chronicpain

Photo of a hand embroidered word search with words circled in dark red stitching to reveal the message: Stitching Wounds With Words That Graft And Grow. This is surrounded with scraps of fabric in burgundy, gold, greys and neutrals, sewn all over in sashiko style stitching in dark red thread.

“Stitching Wounds With Words That Graft And Grow”

Hand embroidered word-search surrounded by sashiko stitching on scrap fabric (a Japanese technique known as boro).

#CraftSky #fiberart #sewing #wordsearch #mecfs #chronicillness #invisibleillness #ME/CFS #chronicpain 🧵 🪡 #sashiko #boro

Blue text surrounded by creative equipment such as a pen, paper, spools of thread, an eraser, a thought bubble, paint and buttons says: "Start where you are. Use what you have. Do what you can.” Arthur Ashe

"Start where you are. Use what you have. Do what you can.” Arthur Ashe

Crafting a Path Through Illness

#art #creativity #CraftSky #fiberarts #poetry #beginner #newstart #writing #Chronicfatigue #chronicpain #chronicillness #mecfs #gardening #collage #mixedmedia

🧶 🎨 🧵 🎵 🌱 📷 🪡 ✍🏻 🎭 💃 🧁