WHO I AM

What first drew me to a cardboard-craft workshop, more than 35 years ago, was above all the wish to share good times among friends. Which young mother, which young woman, which woman in her prime or grandmother — and why not a gentleman too — has never felt that deep longing to come together and share a passion?

Naturally drawn to every form of handmade expression, I came straight to cardboard craft… without stopping off at picture framing, where I made a few forays, though it was never my main motivation.

So, as you will have gathered, it was out of friendship that I first took up cardboard craft. And it was also out of a wish to share this passion with others that, quite naturally, more than 25 years ago, I made the leap from student to workshop leader. I had stayed at home for 10 years to devote myself to raising my children, but as they grew up I felt the urge to "infect" others with this creative passion.

Year after year, demand grew ever greater, and today I run several weekly or fortnightly classes. I also regularly lead workshops of 1 to 5 days in all sorts of unusual venues, and I answer any special request you may have. I lay no claim to the title of "teacher", but I hold dear that of "workshop leader". Passing on technique, along with its geometric and material demands, is only a small part of what I offer my students. I try to share with them my passion for playing with beauty and, above all, to help each one discover her hidden, unknown talents, which are only waiting to be expressed once the right ground has been prepared.

In the classes I run there are no levels, no beginners and no advanced students, no syllabus with handouts of clever techniques. There are only unique human beings, called to give the best of themselves through artistic expression. For most of my students I am merely a guide, a discreet advisor who respects their own tastes — demanding, yet tolerant of their personal motivations. I try to lead them towards a certain form of expression that aims to be artistic.

The further I go in teaching, the more I have wanted — and felt the need — to keep training myself in this field; Don Bosco, Carl R. Rogers and Antoine de la Garanderie have been my masters, to the great joy of all my students, who I believe find in me above all an active listener with a strong desire to help them express their own creativity… and so I always start from their wishes: I suggest but never impose… the fruits of a rich and flourishing creativity can only blossom in freedom.

Teaching and psychology have long been good companions, for I trained as a psychomotor therapist and am also a Fencing Master; indeed that was the profession I practised for 5 years before devoting myself to raising Véronique, Vanessa and Vincent, my 3 children who are also my 3 Victories!!!

For a long time my creative side, though real, stayed as if reined in, held back; until I understood — thanks above all to my friend Pierre-Yves Chavanon — that I was called to something greater… that "magical" spark let me find the loose end of the reel… after that all I had to do was pull, pull, pull… creativity is a bottomless well, as long as you give yourself the means and reach for it!!!

Now it's your turn: thanks to L'Art du Cartonnage, you too can become an artist!