Meet Johanna Flanagan, who you might know better as The Pale Rook. When I first had the idea to open a craft school, I knew that if it was going to feel genuinely special and different from what was already out there, the people I worked with would matter enormously. The tutors would shape the spirit of the place.
Johanna was the very first person I contacted when I started to put the program together. She was also one of the launch workshops that supported the crowdfunder that helped get the school off the ground. Nearly six years later, I’m delighted to say she has become a permanent fixture here, and even better, a CSSC exclusive.
Johanna is a Scottish doll maker, costumiere and teacher whose creative career has taken her across a remarkable range of disciplines. She studied Constructed Textiles at Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art and Design before going on to complete an MA in Fashion at the Royal College of Art. Her work meanders through catwalk fashion, film, theatre and historical costuming. Throughout her creative development, she was always quietly making dolls in the background, almost in secret, never quite taking them seriously until she eventually decided to bring them out of the shadows and place them at the centre of her creative practice. Since then her work has developed an international reputation. Johanna continues to collaborate with organisations around the world, and her distinctive figures are instantly recognisable for their emotional depth and striking presence.
I originally sought Johanna out because I admired this work so much, but also because I had heard extraordinary things about her workshops. People spoke about them as something that went far beyond a typical craft class. They described experiences that were visceral, emotional and creatively liberating. The sort of day where you leave having uncovered ideas and abilities you didn’t realise were quietly waiting inside you.
The continued popularity of Johanna’s courses here is very much down to her open and intuitive teaching style. She doesn’t push people toward a fixed outcome. Instead she gently guides participants toward their own creative instincts. Through playful experimentation, unusual materials and expressive “freeing up” exercises, she has a gift for drawing out ideas and helping people discover talents they didn’t know they had.
As versatile a teacher as she is a maker, Johanna’s workshops span everything from her immersive multi-day art doll and spirit animal courses, which many participants describe as deeply moving creative journeys, to her lighter one-day felting classes that are simply full of joy. Here’s what Johanna’s offering here in the coming months…
