Comedian Bec Hill on why she's supporting our Let's Craft campaign

Comedian Bec Hill incorporates craft in her stand-up performances using what she calls paper-puppetry – animated flip-charts brought to life through moving part and puns. As she prepares to film a new TV show to help children make and fix things at home, she speaks to us about the importance of play at all ages and why she decided to become an ambassador for the Crafts Council’s new Let's Craft campaign, which is aiming to give art activity packs to disadvantaged children around the country at a time when it’s more needed than ever.

How did you become interested in craft?

Bec Hill: I trace it back to my childhood. When I was a kid, there were just five TV channels and no internet, so I found other ways to entertain myself using the materials I had around me, and brushes and watercolour pencils. What I liked was that there was no wrong way to be creative – I wasn’t doing it for an outcome or to impress anyone.

Once when I was in school in Australia, where I grew up, we were asked to make cork hats out of newspaper, and I didn’t like how they looked so I found some card and made my own version, which the teacher used as an example of how you don’t have to do what’s suggested – you can do your own thing.

That idea has stayed with me for life – the idea of looking at something and asking, how can I do that the way I want to? Creativity often gets undermined as childish and kids are told to move on from playing around, but the play element of arts and crafts is so important.

How did you come to integrate it into your work?

When I started out in comedy, I was doing straight standup with a microphone, until one day I wanted to do a skit but didn’t have anyone to perform with. I decided to draw some stick figures and use a technique I’d learned partly on Art Attack to make their mouths move. The skit actually wasn’t very funny but people came up to me afterwards and said they liked what I had done with the flip chart. What started as a creative solution to a problem became my USP for my live and online performances.

And now you’re going to present a new children’s TV show with craft at its heart. Can you tell us more?

Unfortunately we can’t film until the coronavirus situation has eased up, but it’s called Makeaway Takeaway and will be on CITV. The idea is that children can present problems they need help finding solutions to, then we will craft a thing – whether big or small – to fix their problem, mainly using materials that are available around the house or are easily accessible. Hopefully viewers will be able to source those materials and make it themselves or experiment with their own ideas.

Getting children to be creative at home is also the aim of the Crafts Council’s Let’s Craft campaign. Could you tell us more about why you decide to become an ambassador for the initiative?

What I love about this campaign is how it’s providing the basics for accessibility to arts and crafts, which people often take for granted. I was lucky because my mum was creative, so I had access to a lot of art materials, but that isn’t always the case.

I feel like in lockdown, many of us have been in the same position, regardless of age – we’re all stuck indoors, without the ability to socialise or do our usual activities. I’ve found that returning to arts and crafts as entertainment and for therapeutic purposes has been so helpful. Sometimes it’s about mindset – it just lifts my mood. At other times it helps me work through particular issues.

I have a nervous habit picking at my fingers when I’m anxious, so I’ve started making friendship bracelets to keep my hands busy. Children today have a lot of screens around them, but your brain eventually gets bored and worn down looking at them, and arts and crafts reignites that part of that brain that’s tired. And that’s even more important if you don’t have screens.

How do you think this might be valuable beyond lockdown?

I’ve been re-reading the book The Artist’s Way by Julia Cameron, which is a 12-week course in creativity. In it, the author describes the difference between ‘filling the well’ and ‘drawing from the well’ – when you watch other people's creativity, whether on Instagram or through movies, you’re filling your well with images and ideas for inspiration. But if you don't draw from the well – through arts and craft, playing with materials and seeing in different ways – it overflows and you get stuck. Drawing from the well creates a much more even balance in life.

When it comes to arts, crafts and creativity, it’s important for kids to understand that there’s no wrong. When you start being told that things you do are wrong, it can be very damaging and it’s a message that can stay with you into adulthood. It’s important for children to have an outlet for creativity just for themselves – it’s not there to be judged, it’s not a school project to be marked or tested. It’s their special thing and that makes all the difference.

Let’s Craft is supported by the following Corporate donors: Cox London, Yodomo, TOAST, Immediate Media, MADE MAKERS and Hobbycraft