- Ham House [2024-2025]
- Glyndebourne [2021-2022]
- William Morris Society
[2020-2021]
- Wilton’s Music Hall [2017]
- About us
[2020-2021]
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©2025 The Storybox Collective.
P001 → Ham House [2024-2025]
From August 2024 to October 2025, The Storybox Collective collaborated with the National Trust’s Ham House and Garden in Richmond upon Thames to create two compelling exhibitions: Ham House, New Perspectives: Past, Present and Place in February 2025 and The Still House: Plants, Potions and Power from 01 September 2025 - 10 October 2025. Drawing on Ham House’s unique collections, its intriguing history, and vibrant gardens, work in both exhibitions blurs the boundaries between garden and interior, connecting past and present, fact and folklore—inviting visitors to examine the role of historic places and collections as sources of creativity.
Image: August 2024, SBC’s first collective visit to Ham House and Garden. ©Sadie Cook
Exhibition 01:
Ham House,
New Perspectives: Past, Present and Place
15 February - 5 March 2025
Ham House, New Perspectives: Past, Present and Place showcased work-in-progress from the creative researchers group The Storybox Collective in collaboration with the National Trust’s Ham House and Garden.
The work on display in the exhibition captured initial explorations—in sketchbooks and in postcard format—of Ham House’s rich and varied history, the hidden gems within its collection, its restored 17th-century gardens and the estate’s still house that was built for use by Elizabeth, Duchess of Lauderdale. Still houses and the process of distillation in England can be traced back as far as 1478 with still houses or rooms becoming common in country houses by the 17th century:
“People from all walks of life used distillation in the period 1560-1660.
In the home women would use the common simple stills in winter to
purify oils and make very simple waters, such as rose water. All medical
professionals used stills. Physicians certainly did for research purposes.”
‘The Still Room Opened’, Hugh Petrie (1998)Storybox Collective members’ research and work-in-progress was inspired by interconnected themes of 17th-century cuisine, medical practices and the use of plants, health and wellbeing, endangered crafts, the female experience and historic beliefs in folklore and magic. The process of investigation was captured in sketchbooks and in postcard format. This first exhibition invited visitors to consider each artist’s journey from inspiration to creation, and to examine the role of historic places and collections as sources of new ideas and creativity.
Above: Visitors explore the research sketchbooks on display in the Back Parlour at Ham House.
Above: Work-in-progress from members of The Storybox Collective.
Exhibition 02:
The Still House:
Plants, Potions and Power
1 September - 10 October 2025
Image: The Still House: Plants, Potions and Power exhibition cover ©The Storybox Collective (2025); composite image created with illustrations by Julia Buckley and Honey Postle
A 17th-century botanical laboratory is reimagined for the 21st century in The Still House: Plants, Potions and Power, an exhibition by The Storybox Collective in collaboration with the National Trust’s Ham House and Garden.
Inspired by the 17th-century Still House at Ham House—once an enclave of domestic alchemy and herbal remedy-making—the exhibition brings together creative responses in ceramics, textiles, print, poetry, mixed media and installations. Work on display in the Library, the Still House and the Dairy at Ham House and Garden explores diverse, yet interwoven themes including the power of plants, the enduring role of women and nature in supporting health and wellbeing, endangered crafts and digital technologies, and the tension between self-sufficiency and privilege.
Seat of Power
Inspiration board
Seat of Power
Prototype renders
Martine Aamodt Hess
Fed With A Silver Spoon
A5 Zine and images
Martine Aamodt Hess
Fed With A Silver Spoon
A5 Zine and images
Garden Gastronomy
Sketch
Mother Thames
Hand built terracotta fountain and votive offerings
‘Why are there roses all over the place?’
Video animation
Garden Gastronomy
Preparatory work
Mother Thames
Votive offerings
‘Why are there roses all over the place?’
Video animation
A Handmade House
Mixed-media artwork, 2025
Handmade paper, linen thread,
cotton thread
A True Fantastico Herbal Book
A5 Zine and embroidery
The Curious Adventure of the
Sylvanian Still House
1:16 Hand-crafted model
Samuel Knowles
Mono-Arch
Watercolour monotype on Awagami paper
A True Fantastico Herbal Book
A5 Zine and embroidery
Mono-Arch
Collage
Trollius europaeus (2025)
Terracotta Clay sgraffito and slip decorated miniature from the series ‘Forget-Me-Not’
Sketchbook pages
it is aster stirring easter around dirt.
is it tan skin to sky
to plant tansy comes from immortal litter”
Julia Rose Lewis
Still Life
Poetry volume and illustrations
Elizabeth, a chara (Elizabeth, my friend)
Mixed media piece with digital and traditional collage & crochet
Centaurea cyanus (2025)
Terracotta Clay slip and lustre decorated miniature from the series ‘Forget-Me-Not’
The Still
2025
Jacket & zine
The Still
2025
Zine
Sketchbook
Sakhli Saheli
[Work-in-progress]
A Storybox Almanac
Risograph printed and handbound booklet
Aide-mémoire
Ink & lipstick on paper
Sakhli Saheli
Fabric book (hand-stitched)