I am a full time student and I am not specialised in anything yet, I feel like I am always learning but am still trying to work out what I could ever teach beyond the obvious impacts and causes of climate change.

I know I love crafts and so I recently began a type of embroidery called punch needling. My materials were funded by a charity called the Mark Evison Foundation who give grants to students looking to learn something new or go on an expedition planned by themselves, but most of it was made
with reused materials that I found.

After nailing linen to a wooden frame, I started creating my turtles, filling one side of the piece (the past) with shades of green and blue. The further towards the right is the moving of time into the potential future where colour fades into pieces of plastic. The page cuttings of skeletons are from a book I found. The diagrams reminded me of the fact that readers could be viewing existing ocean life in this way sooner than we think; it is supposed to raise awareness for the creatures dying out right now as you read this.

Reducing plastic consumption is not just about avoiding glitter. Because our waste processing is so much more efficient than other countries, we need to put pressure on UK companies that fund plastic production and waste systems globally to invest in biodegradable plastics, but also new pipe networks and more intelligent technology that can cheaply make used plastics raw materials again.

If you are interested in punch needling I would love to teach it, so please email me at grace.xryouth@googlemail.com