“I was bedbound for a year. Crocheting helped me.” Amy Searle tells her story.

Not all crafting stories happened due to the pandemic, it may have helped but crafting was around long before covid-19 hit this country.

Amy Searle, founder of Rainbow Poochy, was involved in a motorbike accident when she was 33 and she was bedbound for a year. Within this time, and all of Amy’s life crafting helped her.

Amy said: “I’ve always had mental health issues, ever since I was a kid I have suffered really bad with anxiety and I have clinical depression which is linked with other conditions that I have. I crafted alot as a child, my mum crafted and my nan crafted its just what we did. I have an issue with my legs, so when I had time off school I crafted to stop me from going stir crazy. Due to various things happening in my life I was medically retired at 23.

“When I was 33 I was in a motorcycle accident and I was bedbound for a year so I used crafting to get through that. When I was bedbound I couldn’t do anything, couldn’t leave the house or get around which is abit like the pandemic but at this time I coulnd’t walk either, I broke my pelvis in 6 places.”

After Amy’s accident and being told she could never walk again after the accident her mental health went downhill and fast. Amy’s daughter was 6 at the time and she was really scared that this would impact her life forever.

“When my daughter was out and at school I used to sit and cry in bed. I couldn’t do anything. Then I picked uo my cross stick again and started to do that and then I started doing dreamcatchers, which is what I do now. I am a dream catcher artist. Making dreamcatchers is so mindful because I’m just doing the same thing all the time. So, I now sell dreamcatcher kits to help other people if they are going through the same or a similiar thing I went through or if they just want to mke a dreamcatcher.

“If I am down I crosstich, the rest of the time I make dreamcatchers. That is my passion and I love doing it. Crafting also keeps me off my depression medication, if I craft I feel better."

Amy has her own company because of her various health conditions she is not fit for full time work and she was mediclly retried when she was 23. She owns a company that makes dreamcatcher kits and she sells them on for other people to make, she loves to be able to do this as crafting is her passion.

Amy isn’t the only one in her family who crafts, nor is she the only one to own a crafting business. Lockdown has helped boost Amy’s business however it hasn’t helped everyone’s business including her husbands.

“We had a bit of a panic when Covid hit, my husband also owns his own crafting business. So his business was sewing on patches to leather bike waistcoats for bikers. But then, all the biking events across the UK stopped and were unable to go ahead the business stopped because they didn’t need them while the events were cancelled. His business was less than a year old when this happened, so he got no help from the government because he didn’t meet the criteria of the schemes.

“So the panic was that we had two small businesses, one shut and being able to pay the bills and pay for food. However, although my husband lost his business mine sky rocketed and I got alot of orders. This was really strange as most of my business profit, around 80% was markets and fairs, the other 20% was my online store and now it is really good.”

With the pandemic restrictions as well Amy couldn’t go and see her elderly parents and this didn’t help her mental health at all becuse she was so worried for them. She describes herself as a social butterfly and therefore having no sort of social contact has really been hard for Amy.

Also, like Amekya Creations, Rainbow Poochy has some awards at Amy has won including: Queen of Dream Catchers, Lead Madmin for Heartizan, Market Me and Women in Business.

You can find Amy's business here https://www.facebook.com/rainbowpoochy