How did a Primary school teacher end up making willow and wool coffins?
Release Date: 09/18/2024
Part 2 with Janet Henson on social media!
GillHB & Friends
Following on from my chat with Janet in the preivous epiosode we decided there was a lot more to discuss on the topic of social media. We are keen to point out that we are giving our own viewpoints and experiences as we discuss the ins and outs of social media. We both use social media and enjoy it but do question to what extent are we being manipulated in ways we're not aware of? Are we addicted? Ever heard of 'Thirsty Thursday', 'Influencer pods', 'Shadow banning' for example? No me either! Janet enlightens me as we look at the darker side of social media that many of us use but...
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Catching up with Janet Henson on why she's closing her business.
GillHB & Friends
I last spoke to Janet in episode 25 about her business as a divorce coach specialising in narcisstic abuse and why she has now decided to close her business. She explains that having reached a milestone birthday that she feels she is in the 'departure lounge' of life, but absolutley not ready to board just yet, so wants to make sure she makes the most of it and has the time to do what she wants. We chat about the pressures of the type of coaching she has been doing and that she was doing it more to help people and get information out there rather than build a six figure 'Instagram'...
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Jess Harvey believes women need coaches and mentors.
GillHB & Friends
Jess tells me her story as to why she left a senior role in corporate banking to follow a little idea she'd had in the backof her mind for a few years. She retrained and is now a fully qualified coach and mentor. As people are often confused about the difference between a coach, mentor and sponsor Jess uses a great analogy to explain them. We chat about the importance of making sure a client knows when we are coaching or mentoring. As Jess's background was in a predominantly male environment she recognised the importance of supporting and enabling women to thrive and grow in their own...
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How did a Primary school teacher end up making willow and wool coffins?
GillHB & Friends
Before recording this episode I was looking at Eleanor's Hunt website , and thought she must have been honing her skill of weaving beautiful willow and British wool coffins for years. How wrong can you be?! I've just started learning how to weave with willow and like anything new when you try it you discover just what a skill it is to weave anything! So I was blown away when I learnt Eleanor's story of how she left teaching and is now making really beautiful coffins inside and out. She started her company back in 2021 but she had only recently started willow and rope weaving during...
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The links between people pleasing, trauma and narcissists.
GillHB & Friends
I met Michele many years ago, we are both trained coaches and Master Practitioners of NLP, when we were both assistants on Dr Richard Bandler's NLP courses. Since then we have both gone in different directions and Michele is now a highly experienced trauma informed therapist. She is trained by Gabor Maté in Compassionate Inquiry, Dr Richard Schwartz in Internal Family systems as well as a hypnotherapist and coach. Michele came to specialise in narcissism through wanting to understand more about her own behaviours and experiences. She is an expert in knowing about narcissism in all its various...
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Finding out about a new British innovation - sustainable wool rope.
GillHB & Friends
Did you know that of ALL the global textiles only 1% is wool and of that 1% only 1% is UK wool? Kate Drury is a 4th generation sheep farmer. She lives in Yorkshire and explains why that is the perfect location for her business and how she came to make wool rope. She is passionate about keeping the business in the UK so she knows each stage of the process and that in turn means she helps British farmers and manufacturers maintain their businesses. Launching her business has involved learning a lot about other industries as well as doing the scientific research on her own...
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Chatting to Karen Bek about willow weaving and basketry.
GillHB & Friends
Karen was in academia, about to start a Phd, but knew she wanted to be involved in gardening so despite people saying 'you're wasting your qualifications' and takigna paycut she followed her dream and became a gardener on a large estate supporint peole with mental health challenges. It was whilst working as a gardener she learnt how to weave obelisks and plant supports. The more weaving she did the more she wanted to learn. so enrolled on a course and did lots of different classes with different weavers over the years (and still does attend courses). As she learnt about each basket she...
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Have you heard of wool pots? You will soon!
GillHB & Friends
When wandering around a garden centre have you ever thought about all those plastic pots we buy our plants in and what happens to them? What do you do with yours? Bin them? hide them in the shed never to use again? Give them to a friend who grows things from seed or divides plants? Well apart from hiding in someone's shed or being re-used by growers over 500million of them get sent to landfill! They don't degrade and take on average between 400 - 450 years to break down into micro and nano plastics and we all know where they end up! On the other side farmers with smaller herds of...
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Would you start a business as you approached your 60's?
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This quote came to mind as I was chatting to Mitty - “People who say it cannot be done, should not interrupt those who are doing it", George Bernard Shaw. My 'friend' on this podcast is defintiely the person doing it! Meet Mitty who, not only decided to start her business 3 years ago in covid, but also turned 60 this year which she celebrated by going to India - not just for pleasure also for business. I'm very keen to discover how it all started, where did she get the idea from and find out what her great motivators are for growing her business - it...
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Sarah Franken explains how accidentally walking into a panel talk resulted in the online magazine 'Lumera'.
GillHB & Friends
In this episode it's all about 'sustainable fashion' Gill chats to Sarah Franken a young entrepreneur about how she came to set up the online magazine 'Lumera'. The focus of the magazine is to highlight sustainable brands and Gill finds out what is sustainable fashion and how complicated it can get! Sarah explains that at university she wasn't particularly passionate about sustainability but how, a few years later, she accidentally walked into a panel talk all about sustainable fashion and it gave her a whole new perspective and passion to pursue. Lumera was born. They discuss what...
info_outlineBefore recording this episode I was looking at Eleanor's Hunt website https://www.thewoollencwtchcompany.com/ , and thought she must have been honing her skill of weaving beautiful willow and British wool coffins for years. How wrong can you be?!
I've just started learning how to weave with willow and like anything new when you try it you discover just what a skill it is to weave anything! So I was blown away when I learnt Eleanor's story of how she left teaching and is now making really beautiful coffins inside and out.
She started her company back in 2021 but she had only recently started willow and rope weaving during covid and actually taught herself to do it! She had moved to mid Wales and having helped out on farms as a lambing assistant appreciated all the amazing benefits of wool and wanted to help British sheep farmers raise the price of their wool. She knew it would have to be commercial enough to achieve her goal. She had an idea...
We chat about how no skill is wasted and how each skill she has learnt along the way from: upholstery, to felting, to weaving seats, to sewing, to processing wool, to spinning, to making her own rope...are all being used in making her beautiful coffins.
I also find out the meaning of her company name - with Cwtch being a Welsh word.
Her attitude to life is evident from her story. She just keeps moving forward, she never sees anything as a failure but an opportunity to learn how to do better and she's keen to seek out help and advice - which is how she met another inspiring woman Kate Drury and her sustainable rope (Kate's story is episode 80).
Her story and passion for wool is infectious and will inspire anyone who listens to it, me included!
Note: I'm so happy to add that since recording the podcast a couple of weeks ago Eleanor has achieved full accreditation for her coffins. Most crematoriums in the UK now require coffins to have passed through a specially designed testing protocol. This means that her coffins can now be used in cremations as well as in burials and will have a blue stamp on the base with it's own unique code. Congratulations Eleanor.