Crafting a Path Through Illness

Germaine Hypher has been disabled by chronic illness and fatigue since childhood and has found arts and crafts to be her constant best allies, teaching her to live a well-adapted, meaningful and joyful life while predominantly housebound and often bed-based. Her writing experience has included providing content for the eco-store Natural Collection, founding and editing a nature-crafts magazine for seven years, contributions to various anthologies, winning the Hastings National Poetry Competition (2005) and winning a bursary from The Literary Consultancy. Crafting a Path through Illness has been completed against the odds, often in energy-windows of just half-an-hour a day, but is a testament to the power of creative expression in giving meaning to life with chronic illness.

Introduction: From my story to yours; Part I: Being ill, the creative way: A creative live; the feedback loop; Artistic responses to illness; Part II: Creative healthcare: An historic viewpoint; Crafty prescriptions for physical conditions; Creative calm for happier health; Part III: The art of felling larger than your illness: Creative purpose; Making a difference; Creative connections; Part IV: Crafting you path: Spinning gold from straw; Making room for creativity; Getting the tension right; Stopping up the energy leaks; From pushing to pacing; Good practice; Create-ability; Fallow times and beyond; Part V: A dose of inspiration: Changing perceptions, not circumstances; Moving with the rhythms of restriction; Going without; Going within; Listening to the voice of illness; Maximising your environment; Flights of fancy; Borrowing from others; Contradictions and combinations; Gathering the yarns of your life; Part VI: Creative directions: Home-friendly arts and crafts; Charity and kindness projects; Online resources; Metaphors and imagery to explore; Postscript: Recovering from perfectionism. References and further reading