Has Covid made you reassess your working life and your priorities? Many people are now being given the choice of whether to go back into the office full time or continue to work from home, but maybe you have been considering a different direction altogether?

Working Week talks to Helen Winter for whom redundancy meant a complete change of lifestyle and a brand new creative business.

’It’s the toughest thing I’ve ever had to do, and it is still a tough journey, but the rewards that I’m getting are just amazing,’ says Helen.

Despite being a very talented textile artist she admits that she would never have left her corporate life and started a business had she not been made redundant two years ago at the age of 53.

’I was never brave enough, I think because of the conditioning that we’ve had throughout all of our lives that you had to have a nine to five job and you have to conform to being paid by somebody else and being accountable to somebody else,’ she says.

She had been the facilities manager at Continent 8 for 10 years, and at Zurich prior to that. When the redundancy came, she says: ’I had never been in that situation before’, and she is glad she took advantage of the help and advice that was available.

Helen spoke initially to an advisor provided by the company who suggested that she should start a business using her training and talent for art. She had studied textile technology and knitwear design at university and had also done a foundation course in art.

Helen says: ’All of my education was around art but when I came out of university it was in the era when it was drummed into you that you couldn’t really make a profession out of it.

’So I then went down the corporate route and art was just something I did as a stress relief for my wellbeing.’

When she decided to take the plunge and start her own company she also took advantage of the micro business course run by the Department of Enterprise: ’You attend for four half days then put together a business plan. If they think it’s viable then you will get a grant towards your initial start-up and you get assigned a mentor for two years, which has been invaluable, it’s been amazing.’

There was however, still the whole mental process of being ’out on her own’, and losing that regular monthly income to go through.

Helen recalls: ’It was a bizarre thing: to be corporate all that time then to actually be set free from that, it was a little bit like grieving.

’It was the grief of being stripped away from all that having to be out of the house for a certain time, having to be in work for a certain period of time, having to conform to living by certain rules. It’s as if your purpose has been taken away from you and you flounder. It was like: "Well now what?"’

Helen was made redundant at the end of 2019 and before she could get properly into her stride with her new business, the pandemic began.

’It was so new to me, this working for yourself, so I think in some ways that was good for me just to have that time to reassess, to re-evaluate what was going on and to actually put some plans into action.

’It sounds a strange thing to say but with all of the scariness and uncertainty that was going on in the outside world, to actually have time to just concentrate on my art and being confined indoors was just amazing,’ she says.

She started a piece of art that allowed her to experiment and fully stretch her imagination.

She finished it just as the island came out of the first lockdown and she was thrilled when it was one of 20 submissions chosen (out of 85) to be included in the Boundaries exhibition now on at the House of Manannan.

She has also used images from the design on her homeware range which includes mugs, tea towels and cushions, and on her greetings cards.

A few years ago Helen made a stunning model of a Loaghtan ram for the 7th Northern Atlantic Native Breed Conference, which was held on the island.

Aldyn, as he was named, is made from Manx Loaghtan fleece using felting techniques. When she was looking at ways of progressing her business she posted a video of him on Facebook. It was seen by Carol Kempson who is president of the Loaghtan Breed Society in the UK.

’She contacted me and said could I make them as a prize for the best Loaghtan sheep in their show but she loved what I’d done so much that she’s kept it for herself and she wants me to make another one for her,’ says Helen.

Aldyn’s popularity and the feedback she got from him has led Helen to launch a range of needle felting craft kits featuring heritage and endangered species: a Herdwick sheep, a Highland cow, a Manx Loaghtan, a Panda, a Manx cat and an Exmoor pony.

She is also holding workshops and is loving being able to pass on her own love of art to others.

She says: ’What I’m getting across to people is to fall in love with their creativity.

’A lot of people will come and they’ve never done it before and they’ll say: "Oh I can’t do it", but I’ll encourage and draw out that creativity to the point where, in a short period of time, they’re just mesmerised with what they can do.

’They leave at the end of the workshop absolutely amazed and proud of what they’ve done and it’s just joyful to see.

’It’s so good for your wellbeing: we all get wrapped up in our whirlwind of life and just to be able to have that time to just reflect and realise what we’re capable of - it’s just an amazing thing.’

Her fledgling business, she says, is still at the stage of building brand awareness, rather than actually making money. But Helen is clearly already completely fulfilled by her new way of life.

She says: ’We have to have direction but sometimes we believe that direction too much and a lot of people just go along through life conforming to what they’re told and they don’t have a purpose so much.

’I think the beautiful thing about what I’ve been able to discover is that I now know my purpose - I always had it but it’s being able to have the time to reflect and actually find what it is and I’m now clear on what that purpose is and I’m developing it into this amazing thing.’

l Helen’s craft kits and homeware range, and information about upcoming workshops, are available on her website, www.helenwintertextileart.co.uk