The UK Called...and I answered 🏴🏴
What do participants in my lettering workshops have to say about how it has added value to their work? Click the image above to watch the video.
Will we letter together in the UK?
What brought me there in the first place:
It was early 2020…we were leaving the UK for Iceland and heading back home. Covid was a whisper in the air as I wrapped up a 5-week lettering tour through Europe and a retreat in Oxford, England. Within days, the whisper became a storm—and the world changed.
Five years later, that time feels like another lifetime. Looking back on everything that’s unfolded since then, I can see how each experience—joyful and painful—has shaped who I am now.
Ever since my first visit in 2019, from the plane window, the patchwork of green fields pulled at something deep inside me. That feeling has stayed — nurtured by the movies I watch, the stories I hear, and the friendships that remind me that the call of the land never fades.
After the passing of my beloved Ray, I was lost and searching for resources on grief.
“Your grandmother was a Keener.”
My mother shared that I’d been keening in Ray’s final days—an ancient Irish and Scottish practice that lives in my lineage. What I thought was an online class on keening turned out to be a deposit for a weeklong, in-person pilgrimage on a remote island in the Hebrides, Scotland. My tear-flooded eyes and trembling hands guided me as I signed up, unsure of what I was stepping into.
That week, The Gathering of the Keeners, became a sacred turning point. It widened my heart’s capacity to hold others in their grief and to tend my own. The land held me first: the forests, the beaches, the sea that echoed my cries and soothed them with its rhythm. It left me with two embers: one of sorrow and one of hope. I’ve been tending the fire of love and grief ever since.
And the people.
The dear friends who shepherded me from plane to train to ferry. The islanders of Eigg are grounded, witty, visionary souls who live in deep rhythm with one another and the land itself. They taught me that community and individuality can coexist—that boundaries and belonging are both forms of love.
And the land.
The land!
Scotland, the land of a thousand greens. Each turn of the road, each crest of a hill, each gaze across a loch reminded me that I was walking on sacred ground. The moss embraced me, the trees hugged back, and the bramble and bracken clung to me like reminders to stay awake to life. I’ve always been a mountain girl. I didn’t know I could love the sea—until I asked it to bring me back if I was meant to return.
It seems I am.
Eigg gave me many gifts: a piece of sea glass shaped like the island, a wool sweater, a walking stick, and a new lens through which I see the world. I planted a few seeds there, and some have taken root.
What I thought would be a winter chasing 70-degree weather in my Casita has turned into something far richer. The people of Eigg helped me find a winter let, and I’ll soon be returning to the island that has the capacity to hold me through my grief. Tickets are booked, care packages are en route, and I’m curating what fits into two checked bags and a carry-on.
But enough about me — what’s in it for you?
While I’m in Scotland, I’ll be working on new creative projects, including:
✏️ A Cursive Curriculum for Blackwing
💧 Let Grief Speak — developing live online sessions and companion workbooks
🖋️ Advanced Skills in Lettering — refining my in-person class to be held in Newcastle upon Tyne in February.
And yes, this journey marks the beginning of a new lettering tour!
Announcing…
✨ Lettering Masterclasses in Newcastle upon Tyne ✨
Hosted by Inky Thinking, Neuland reseller and graphic facilitation boutique.
Designed with the visual practitioner in mind, for those who have not taken my in person workshops, learn Core Skills here. For those who have lettered with me before, join me in the Advanced Skills workshop here.
Until then, may you find the land that holds you—whether it’s forest or desert, mountain or sea—and listen for what it’s whispering back.
