But I'm getting ahead of myself, a bit of background. Back in late 2025 Sophie Macaulay at GRIT asked if I'd be interested in being the map illustrator of the trail that would go up around Didsbury in Greater Manchester. Of course, said yes, and together with Francis House Childrens Hospice, ceramics artists Alison Waters and Sarah Pink, the 'Men in Sheds' and help from a few others, the project came together beautifully, and launched this week at Didsbury Festival.
Details;
Sophie from GRIT and Sinead from Francis House designed the trail, while ceramists Alison & Sarah Stockport ran tile-making workshops with the children (you can see more of that here). Once the trail was decided and tiles fired and painted, I then started on the map illustration. Here's the finished piece, above.
I also ran a map-making workshop with a group of amazing kids from the home. The aim was fun, making giant maps of houses, streets, treasure maps, which then turned into trains, monsters, sailing ships and wherever their imagination took them. A big thanks to Simon and Alex from 53Two for letting us use there wheelchair accessible space, which was perfect for what we needed.
I also created a simple updatable WordPress website for the project, as a more detailed online resource for the trail that folks could pull up on their phone, and a place where the hospice could add their stories and photos of the project. You can see that here.
This project is another good example of how I try to position 'Rocket Steps' working on creative projects that have face-to-face engagement and a level of social impact too. There's more to come :)
More information;
