Creative work, writing and projects from Gwen
For a month I ran a tiny honesty-box shelf outside my house, stocked with handmade bits and a tin for payment. Here’s what footfall, drizzle, neighbourly notes and a tub of coins taught me about pricing, weather and trust.
A year ago I put a weatherproof box of half-used paints, spare tools and oddments by my front gate. It was meant to clear a shelf. It became a small, awkward, unexpectedly generous neighbourhood institution — and it changed how I make work in 2026.
A wet November weekend, a borrowed long-arm stapler and a pile of A5 pages about one ordinary UK street. This is what happened when I stopped making things for a feed and made something for the neighbours instead.
For half a year I promoted small creative projects the old-fashioned way: laminating flyers and pinning them around one UK town. The boards taught me more about audience than any analytics dashboard — mostly because they are completely unbothered by my feelings.
I asked a potter, an illustrator and a bookbinder I know to make me small things, then wrote down every brief, budget and cringe-inducing email. Paying friends isn’t the end of intimacy — it’s often the beginning of a clearer kind of respect.
Likes are not feedback and reach is not an audience. An argument for the monthly, face-to-face critique night — plus a sensible format, some ground rules, and what to do when somebody's feelings get bruised.
A candid, step-by-step account of putting on a one-day exhibition in a borrowed village hall — what it really costs, what you can scrounge, and how to make a draughty room feel deliberate. Written for anyone who has quietly decided that showing work in public is for other people.
Gwen Turner argues that abandoned creative projects are useful records rather than embarrassments. Part personal essay, part gentle anti-perfectionist guide, this is a practical look at how to review, reuse or retire old work without shame.
A rolling public project in which Gwen Turner asks ten UK makers one question: what creative object or piece of work do you wish you had kept? Their answers become a quiet essay about memory, materials and the rough versions we undervalue.
A £10 charity-shop haul, one damp Saturday, and five small projects with honest notes on what worked and what absolutely did not. This is budget creativity with a British high street wobble.
I invited strangers into my front room to look at unfinished work, rough drafts and all. It was awkward, warm, and surprisingly useful — here is what happened and how you could try a smaller version.
Social platforms are faster, louder and more exhausting than ever. A personal-name site like gwenturner.co.uk offers something different: a calm, owned home for writing, projects and identity. Here is what belongs there, what does not, and why UK creatives should keep one.
When the UK daylight shrinks to a sliver by four o'clock, making anything can feel like a stretch. These seven small rituals from Gwen Turner's desk are designed for dark evenings, low energy and the quiet stretch between November and the new year.