MAKING WINTER: A Creative Guide to Surviving the Winter Months by Emma Mitchell published today

MAKING WINTER, Emma Mitchell’s highly-anticipated creative survival guide for cold and grey days, is published today in a beautiful illustrated hardback by Michael O’Mara.

From delicate silver jewellery, paper-craft decorations and crocheted mittens, to foraged infusions, delicious recipes and nature diaries, MAKING WINTER is filled with projects designed to fend off dreariness in the winter months. Step-by-step instructions and beautiful photographs, shot at Emma's cottage in the Fens, take you through each project, so that even beginners can enjoy the mood-boosting benefits of a craft-filled winter and snuggle down in their own cosy paradise.

Emma Mitchell is a designer-maker, naturalist and illustrator who has written for the Guardian, Mollie Makes and Standard Issue magazine. In 2011 she began a project on her blog silverpebble, encouraging readers to use creative, cosy and cake-based ways to prevent winter from becoming three months of incessant greyness. In the winter of 2015/16 so many people joined in with the project #MakingWinter that it trended on Twitter several times.

MAKING WINTER is Emma’s first book and each of the projects and recipes is designed to boost mood on dreary days; she is passionate about the potential of both craft and contact with nature for combatting depression.

Emma lives on the edge of the Fens in Eastern England with her husband, two daughters, two guinea pigs, and dog. She records her daily nature finds with photographs and illustrations on her Instagram (@silverpebble2) and Twitter (@silverpebble). Emma invented the Comic Relief Crafternoon project which has raised significant amounts for brilliant causes through the UK's love of craft.

The book was launched yesterday evening at LOOP knitting shop, and Emma will be hosting a number of events over the winter months, including a workshop at Henley Festival on Sunday 8th October and at Big Green Bookshop in Wood Green on Friday 27th October.

MICHAEL O’MARA TO PUBLISH HIGHLY ANTICIPATED WINTER SURVIVAL GUIDE BY POPULAR INSTAGRAMMER, EMMA MITCHELL

On the 5th of October 2017, Lom Art, the arts and crafts imprint of Michael O’Mara will bring warmth to many homes by publishing MAKING WINTER, a fantastic guide to surviving unbearably cold months. Popular instagrammer, Emma Mitchell, assures us that ‘dishwater after a Sunday roast’ weather is a thing of the past. Juliet Pickering sold world rights, at auction, to Fiona Slater. 

From delicate silver jewellery, paper-craft decorations and crocheted mittens, to foraged infusions, delicious recipes and nature diaries, this book is sure to boost your mood! It is filled with projects, step-by-step instructions and beautiful photographs to take you through every day. MAKING WINTER: A CREATIVE GUIDE FOR SURVIVING THE WINTER MONTHS is the perfect companion to dark evenings, rainy afternoons and winter melancholy, and inspires even the bleakest of days to become creative, full of colour and joy. 

MAKING WINTER has had a lot of success on social media: Emma, who is a design-maker and craft teacher, has a following of close to 100,000 on Instagram. Fiona Slater says that ‘Emma has been bringing cosy, crafting joy to her Instagram followers for a few years now and I couldn’t be more excited to be working with her on her first book. The combination of her scrummy photographs and projects designed to lift your mood during the frosty months makes this so much more than a craft book, and I can’t wait to share it with everyone.’

You can pre-order MAKING WINTER here.

About the author: Emma’s jewellery and crochet designs have been published in Country LivingMollie Makes, Kirstie Allsopp’s CRAFT and several other national lifestyle and craft titles. She contributed regular articles on craft and creativity to Standard Issue where her articles are amongst the most popular on the site. She has written for the Guardian and discussed the revival of letter-writing on BBC radio. She brought together well-known designers and knitted beard-wearing celebrities to make and write the Mollie Makes Big Comic Relief Crafternoon magazine in 2015 and 2017, which raised significant funds for Comic Relief.

The Making Winter project began on Emma’s blog in 2011 as a creative antidote to the seemingly incessant grey days between November and March. During the winter of 2015/16 a revival of Making Winter had so many participants that it trended on Twitter and became one of the most popular hashtags on Instagram. 

Emma's website

Emma on Instagram

Emma on Twitter