Put on the kettle. This is the longest voice note I've recorded so far, and it circles a question I’ve been sitting with:

What is creativity actually for?

In this episode, I reflect on creativity as something foundational in my life. Not as something I do (in the sense of output, or identity, or even profession), but as something I return to - as a way of being in the world.

A way of:

- staying in contact with myself

- learning to trust what I feel

- making sense of things that can’t be thought through, that have to be experienced to be known.

- holding contradiction without needing to resolve it

I speak about creativity as a kind of relationship - to materials, to the body, to the world - and how that relationship has shaped both my practice and my teaching, and continues to do so.

There’s also something here about not abandoning yourself. About how making can become a repeated act of staying.

This isn’t a neat answer.More a mapping of where I am with it right now.

As ever - a work in progress.

I'd love to know your thoughts.

I recorded this back in mid-January, but life got busy and a little messy - multiple emergency vet appointments for my pet, juggling work deadlines, and feeling the emotional and financial weight of it all - so I didn’t get around to posting it. I’m sharing it now as a reminder, to myself and maybe to you, that keeping a practice alive means practicing it, again and again.

Gratitude is a word that gets bandied around a lot these days, and I have mixed feelings about it. But for me, it’s more than a word - it’s a quiet, embodied practice: noticing, naming, writing down. Simple, yet profoundly grounding, it threads through my creative practice, connects the pieces of my life, and helps me see a bigger picture.

In this recording, I share what I’ve noticed from returning to this practice, how it shows up in my daily rhythms, and how it helps me stay present - even amidst chaos, stress, and uncertainty.

In this episode I respond to a listener’s message in response to my recording about playfulness (episode 7) and the need for trust that they identify, and I make a link in turn to surrendering into the unknown, and the self-knowledge that can come out of that. I speak specifically about my coming out journey and my queerness, and touch briefly on the experience of fully stepping into my mixed heritage. I mention the notion of Eros (desire) in its broadest sense - as I see it: That spark of inspiration and recognition of something that aligns so deeply, that rings so true, that there simply is no choice but to seek expression of it in the external world, whether that is as art, as coming out, in relationships, or in other ways.

Thank you for the nourishment received from those of you who have engaged with my content, and those of you who have engaged outside of it. I am still finding my way with these recordings, am still learning what I need from them, what they need from me, and how to engage in the conversations that arise as a result. Please bear with me as I fumble my way through, it is very much a part of why I’m doing this, and I trust that one day it will all make sense - for myself as much as for you!

The official bit:

Dutch-Indonesian artist Gladys Paulus (b. 1973) is a visual artist, tutor and coach.

She works at the intersection of fine art and traditional crafts. Her practice is rooted in exploring the ancestral and emotive power of materials. Drawing on her ongoing inquiry into identity and lineage, she uses textiles as vessels of memory, transformation, and quiet resistance. Her work often emerges from slowness, using the tactile language of sheep’s wool and hand-making to honour what has been forgotten, unspoken, marginalised, or repressed, drawing from personal explorations of her own identity as a queer person of mixed heritage, a descendant of refugee migrants, as well as her meditation and embodiment practices.

​Felt, with its primal tactility and ancient lineage, allows her to blur boundaries between art and ritual, between object and offering. Felt is thought to predate woven textile, and is intimately linked to our place within the landscape, and to our very survival as a species. The techniques of wet felting have remained the same in essence to this day. In exploring wool’s capacity to hold memory and emotion, Paulus stretches it into new dimensions, creating pieces that do not merely exist as objects but rather as vessels for experience, reflection, and transformation.

Paulus’s works draw parallels between craftsmanship and the contemplative aspects of ritual. She sees her pieces as quiet acts of defiance against the erosion of mystery, beauty and sacredness in modern life. In a world that often prioritizes speed, utility, and superficiality, her practice stands as a reminder of slowness, reverence, and the value of ritual. Felt allows her to forge a space where the distinctions between art, craft, and spirituality blur and become irrelevant. It allows her to merge the sometimes opposing cultural attitudes that have shaped her own identity, while also questioning and reinterpreting them. This is where her work thrives: In the in-between, the belonging and not belonging, the sacred and the profane, the personal and the universal.

A fourth generation artist and maker, Paulus currently lives and works in Somerset (UK). She is a specialist visiting tutor across the UK, Europe, USA and Canada, a former exhibiting member of the 62 Group of textile artists and she is on the Crafts Councils Selected Index of Makers. Her work is represented in the collection of the World Museum (Amsterdam), and private collections in the USA, Canada, Mexico and the UK.

To find out more, visit:

https://www.gladyspaulus.com/

I recorded it from my bed in the French pays Basque (Basque country), overlooking the Pyrenees mountain range separating France from Spain. I sat and watched the trajectory of the morning sun across the mountain range (steaming cup of coffee in hand), and it put me in a contemplative and philosophical mood.

It’s taken me much longer than anticipated to find a quiet moment for recording during my time here in France… It’s been a full, focussed, rich and social few weeks, with little time by myself. But I have now finished teaching at Feutre Formation France, have said my goodbyes, and have arrived at a stunning new location near Oloron Sainte Marie yesterday afternoon. I will be here for a few days of rest, before providing one my students with technical felt making support for one of her performance art projects.

I’m shifting gears today, and am really enjoying some quiet time all by myself, all alone in a stunning stone house, tucked away in a hidden little corner in the foot of the mountains. At times like this I really have to pinch myself… The places my work takes me. I am filled with gratitude this morning. It made me reflect on the value of ‘openness’ - to life in general, to the opportunities that come alone, and to the importance of it for creativity and also in connecting with people. I reflect on how Vipassana meditation has helped me cultivate openness over the years, and draw parallels between it and the creative process, and what I noticed coming up for students during these past workshops.

This recording turned out a bit longer than planned, but it feels good to come back to it as a little space of my own to reflect.

Thanks for being here with me.

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The official bit:

Dutch-Indonesian artist Gladys Paulus (b. 1973) is a visual artist, tutor and coach.

She works at the intersection of fine art and traditional crafts. Her practice is rooted in exploring the ancestral and emotive power of materials. Drawing on her ongoing inquiry into identity and lineage, she uses textiles as vessels of memory, transformation, and quiet resistance. Her work often emerges from slowness, using the tactile language of sheep’s wool and hand-making to honour what has been forgotten, unspoken, marginalised, or repressed.

Paulus’s practice often draws from personal explorations of her own identity as a queer person of mixed heritage, a descendant of refugee migrants, as well as her meditation and embodiment practices. Her creative practice weaves together elements of the past with the present, creating works that are both a dialogue with history, and a meditation on her own place within it. She sees the act of making as an act of restoration; to make visible the invisible, and the past that has shaped us. Not simply to venerate it, but to question it, understand its impact on the present, and learn from it.

​Felt, with its primal tactility and ancient lineage, allows her to blur boundaries between art and ritual, between object and offering. Felt is thought to predate woven textile, and is intimately linked to our place within the landscape, and to our very survival as a species. The techniques of wet felting have remained the same in essence to this day. In exploring wool’s capacity to hold memory and emotion, Paulus stretches it into new dimensions, creating pieces that do not merely exist as objects but rather as vessels for experience, reflection, and transformation.

​Her works draws parallels between craftsmanship and the contemplative aspects of ritual. She sees her pieces as quiet acts of defiance against the erosion of mystery, beauty and sacredness in modern life. In a world that often prioritizes speed, utility, and superficiality, her practice stands as a reminder of slowness, reverence, and the value of ritual. Felt allows her to forge a space where the distinctions between art, craft, and spirituality blur and become irrelevant. It allows her to merge the sometimes opposing cultural attitudes that have shaped her own identity, while also questioning and reinterpreting them. This is where her work thrives: In the in-between, the belonging and not belonging, the sacred and the profane, the personal and the universal.

A fourth generation artist and maker, Paulus currently lives and works in Somerset. She is a specialist visiting tutor across the UK, Europe, USA and Canada, a former exhibiting member of the 62 Group of textile artists and she is on the Crafts Councils Selected Index of Makers. Her work is represented in the collection of the World Museum (Amsterdam), and private collections in the USA, Canada, Mexico and the UK.

To find out more, visit:

https://www.gladyspaulus.com/

If you listened to my previous recording, you’ll have heard me talk about my value of ‘playfulness’, what that means to me and why I’m prioritising it at this point in my life. Even though this recording does not officially fall within this mini series on core values, I feel there is enough overlap to share it now. In this conversation with Anita - which she generously agreed to, without really knowing what she agreed to! - we touch upon the idea of play in the creative process in more depth, as well the shape of the creative process, and the kind of questions we can ask ourselves when we feel creatively stuck.

As a side note: I love a good conversation, but never having recorded one, I felt unexpectedly nervous and nearly bottled out at the last minute. I knew I wanted it to be more of a casual conversation than some sort of formal interview, but in the end I did jot down some questions (just to provide myself with support and also to give some structure to the conversation). So it ended up a bit of a mish-mash of both. I hope you enjoy this conversation as much as I did! It was recorded on 4 September 2025 at Feutre Formation France in Montbrun-Bocage

PS: My recording equipment is purposely low-tech; basically just my phone (which in this case was precariously balanced on an upturned bowl on top of a watering can). I think this works fine for now, and it allows for more spontaneous conversations, rather than pre-planned ones requiring a lot of technology, but in future I may well invest in some portable microphone for better sound quality.

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The official bit:

Gladys Paulus is a visual artist, tutor and coach.

She specialises in the medium of handmade felt. Her work is in the collection of World Museum Amsterdam (the Netherlands), and private collections in the UK, Mexico, USA and Canada. She’s exhibited nationally and internationally, and in 2022, her work was shown alongside that of Turner prize nominee Dr. Ingrid Pollard MBE. Past commercial work has been featured on stage in theatres, music videos, television and film. Gladys has a long standing international teaching schedule and has taught 1,000+ students, she is a former member of the international 62 Group of textile artists and can be found on the Crafts Council (UK) selected Index of Makers.

To find out more, visit:

https://www.gladyspaulus.com/

In this - much longer than intended! - voice note, I share what I mean with playfulness, why play is crucial for my creative process as well as in my life more generally, and the kind of qualities and practices that need cultivating in order to support playfulness.

Prioritising play, in many ways, goes directly against the grain of the societal expectations and pressures we place on ourselves as adults in a capitalist society, where our value is linked to our productivity and financial worth. It can feel impossible to even allow ourselves permission, and it can feel risky and rebellious too. Even for someone who lives life as a creative.

But play is not a luxury, it is a necessity. It is essential for learning, creativity and well-being. As Albert Einstein said: “Play is the highest form of research”. And in the words of Maya Angelou: “You can’t use up creativity, the more you use, the more you have.”

I aim to play more! And I am sharing my intention here, as a way to hold myself accountable. So…

* I am committing myself to prioritise play his coming year by creating regular (weekly) “no outcome” days, dedicated to pure exploration and led by curiosity and the materials.

* I’m going to keep my playful experiments small, in order to disrupt my own habits and tendencies towards making big, time consuming pieces, and so I can respond quickly and in the moment when I feel excited about a new shape, a new idea, a new trail of responses.

Thanks for being my witness!

Cover image: my hands at work playing with spontaneous sculptural shapes during workshop with Anita Johnson. Credit: Anita Johnson. Venue: Feutre Formation France.

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The official bit:

Gladys Paulus is a visual artist, tutor and coach.

She specialises in the medium of handmade felt. Her work is in the collection of World Museum Amsterdam (the Netherlands), and private collections in the UK, Mexico, USA and Canada. She’s exhibited nationally and internationally, and in 2022, her work was shown alongside that of Turner prize nominee Dr. Ingrid Pollard MBE. Past commercial work has been featured on stage in theatres, music videos, television and film. Gladys has a long standing international teaching schedule and has taught 1,000+ students, she is a former member of the international 62 Group of textile artists and can be found on the Crafts Council (UK) selected Index of Makers.

To find out more, visit:

https://www.gladyspaulus.com/

I touch on the moments of doubt that occur each time after clicking the ‘post’ button, the use of identifying and knowing my values in order to make conscious choices in alignment with myself, and how this relates to my creative practice and my coming out process also. I briefly summarise what is known in the coaching world as the ‘Values Elicitation’ process, and I share my 10 personal values at the (current) core of my personal and professional life.

These are: Playfulness, Openness, Self-knowledge, Gratitude, Creativity, Integrity, Growth, Purpose, Beauty, and Contribution.

Each value will become the subject of deeper exploration in forthcoming recordings, giving a bit more structure to what may currently seem quite a loose and open project to anyone who lives outside of my head.

Thanks for being here with me.

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The official bit:

Gladys Paulus is a visual artist, tutor and coach.

She specialises in the medium of handmade felt. Her work is in the collection of World Museum Amsterdam (the Netherlands), and private collections in the UK, Mexico, USA and Canada. She’s exhibited nationally and internationally, and in 2022, her work was shown alongside that of Turner prize nominee Dr. Ingrid Pollard MBE. Past commercial work has been featured on stage in theatres, music videos, television and film. Gladys has a long standing international teaching schedule and has taught 1,000+ students, she is a former member of the international 62 Group of textile artists and can be found on the Crafts Council (UK) selected Index of Makers.

To find out more, visit:

https://www.gladyspaulus.com/

I talk about the emotional break down I had in front of my students and hosts, how exposed it made me feel, and how it contributed to the idea of recording these voice notes. I recorded this last Monday, as I was in the midst of making preparations for the workshops

As I am heading back there at this very moment, it seems entirely right to share my reflections on that event, and to face and name the feelings that come up in relation to it now.

If you are interested in the gorgeous workshop venue where I teach over a period of 6 weeks each year, visit

https://www.feutreformationfrance.com/

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The official bit:

Gladys Paulus is a visual artist, tutor and coach.

She specialises in the medium of handmade felt. Her work is in the collection of World Museum Amsterdam (the Netherlands), and private collections in the UK, Mexico, USA and Canada. She’s exhibited nationally and internationally, and in 2022, her work was shown alongside that of Turner prize nominee Dr. Ingrid Pollard MBE. Past commercial work has been featured on stage in theatres, music videos, television and film. Gladys has a long standing international teaching schedule and has taught 1,000+ students, she is a former member of the international 62 Group of textile artists and can be found on the Crafts Council (UK) selected Index of Makers.

To find out more, visit:

https://www.gladyspaulus.com/

I plan to space out future recordings a little more than these past posts might suggest. It just makes sense to cluster the ones I’ve already done in order to give a bit more of a context, and a taste of what’s to come.

In this voice note, I am speaking while working in my studio; letting my thoughts flow freely as my hands work. Musings include my wrestling with releasing yet another voice into the ether, the tension between the public and the private domain, and trying to give myself some grace. I talk about the importance of being witnessed within a ritual container, and how I see these recordings, Finally, I talk about the eb and flow of my creative process, fallow periods, the spark of desire to unite different strands of my creativity, and the long game.

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The official bit:

Gladys Paulus is a visual artist, tutor and coach.

She specialises in the medium of handmade felt. Her work is in the collection of World Museum Amsterdam (the Netherlands), and private collections in the UK, Mexico, USA and Canada. She’s exhibited nationally and internationally, and in 2022, her work was shown alongside that of Turner prize nominee Dr. Ingrid Pollard MBE. Past commercial work has been featured on stage in theatres, music videos, television and film. Gladys has a long standing international teaching schedule and has taught 1,000+ students, she is a former member of the international 62 Group of textile artists and can be found on the Crafts Council (UK) selected Index of Makers.

To find out more, visit:

https://www.gladyspaulus.com/

In this recording, I talk about my choice of name for these recording, wanting to honour the desire to speak when I feel moved to, the realisation that if I desire to be seen, I have to actually show myself, and my feelings of vulnerability and excitement around intentionally choosing to be seen in my becoming.

I make connections between different aspects of my work, relate the choice of name to my professional career which started out making hand felted masks, my soon-to-be-launched coaching practice, the cultural significance of masks to me as a person of mixed heritage descent, and the links between the ancient origins of felt and masks.

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The official bit:

Gladys Paulus is a visual artist, tutor and coach.

She specialises in the medium of handmade felt. Her work is in the collection of World Museum Amsterdam (the Netherlands), and private collections in the UK, Mexico, USA and Canada. She’s exhibited nationally and internationally, and in 2022, her work was shown alongside that of Turner prize nominee Dr. Ingrid Pollard MBE. Past commercial work has been featured on stage in theatres, music videos, television and film. Gladys has a long standing international teaching schedule and has taught 1,000+ students, she is a former member of the international 62 Group of textile artists and can be found on the Crafts Council (UK) selected Index of Makers.

To find out more, visit:

https://www.gladyspaulus.com/

If you follow me on social media and are familiar with my art work, you know that I teach mask making, and that I am known for my hand felted animal masks in certain circles. I haven’t actually made any masks in recent years, yet the association has stuck somehow, and it feels appropriate to return to it.

If you’ve worked with me, you know that I ask you to bring your all, to show up in your fulness, warts and all. And I want to do the same here. I want to show you more than a finished work in a white gallery, or a carefully curated social media profile. I want to share what’s important to me, what occupies my thoughts, what scares me, what I find difficult, and - ultimately - what informs my work, why I do wat I do. I don’t have many answers. In fact, I probably have more questions than you.

These recordings are my way to move beyond masks - those I make, those I teach my students to make, those I wear, and those I coach people to take off. These will be short recordings, each one a little “sketch” of an idea, a half formed thought or question, unprepared, unedited, thoroughly imperfect, but brought with heart and curiosity. I don’t know what it will lead to, all I know is that I feel called to do this.

I’ve been quietly gearing up towards this moment, been thinking about it for months. I’ve not announced it anywhere just yet. I have seriously procrastinated on execution and pressing record. This is a big deal for me. It’s well outside my comfort zone, and it’s scary. I’m a visual artist, not a word smith. But I have found myself to become more and more interested in words. And I’m doing it. Here it is. The first recording.

Let’s begin.

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The official bit:

Gladys Paulus is a visual artist, tutor and coach.

She specialises in the medium of handmade felt. Her work is in the collection of World museum Amsterdam (Netherlands), and private collections in the UK, USA and Canada. She’s exhibited nationally and internationally, and in 2022, her work was shown alongside that of Turner prize nominee Dr. Ingrid Pollard MBE. Past commercial work has been featured on stage in theatres, music videos, television and film. She is a former member of the international 62 Group of textile artists and can be found on the Crafts Council (UK) selected Index of Makers.

To find out more, visit

https://www.gladyspaulus.com/