Deborah Rehmat volunteers for both Cliffe Castle Support Group and the museum helping to generate, deliver and support projects and activities – mostly by working together with others to develop ideas and then by providing sketches and other artwork. In this blog, in response to collections at Bradford Museums, Deborah shares the inspiration for her own beautiful illustrations.

I support the CCSG social media team by co-ordinating the Instagram account, and I do a regular feature post on CCSG Instagram and Facebook every Tuesday, which occasionally generates projects of its own both online and on-site (like the Little Folding Books project that culminated with an exhibition in the museum). 

Although in the past I was very often to be found in the park and the museum (usually drawing!) my chronic illness – I have ME/CFS – now limits me from doing this and so nowadays I do most of my volunteering online, from home, as disability prevents me from on-site volunteering.

Over the years I’ve gazed admiringly, lovingly, with curiosity and fascination at hundreds of objects in Cliffe Castle Museum, and I’ve filled sketchbooks with drawings. Every single visit I find something different depending on how I’m feeling and what I need. 

If I want to reflect on my own smallness and the immensity of geological history I’ll go and look at an ammonite or a fossil. If I feel like some comic relief I’ll seek out a curiosity like the gooseberry scales. If it’s charm I’m seeking I might look at Staffordshire pottery, or if I want to study birds or animals (which I very often do) I’ll head for the natural history gallery. And if I want comfort, for me there’s nothing better than the collections of old woodworking tools that been loved and lovingly used to create other beautiful things, and which are simply lovely things in their own right.