Who I Am and What I Do
I’m Theresa Hodge, owner of Theresa Lydia Crafts, based in the seaside town of Hastings in East Sussex.
I’ve always lived in Hastings, but being visually impaired, I spent my education years at boarding schools which were set up to cater for the needs of people with specific impairments. Having left college in 1990, I returned home, and here I am 30+ years later, still in Hastings, and I’m here to stay.
In 1990, my working life began in an administrative role in a children and families team for East Sussex County Council. For the past 25+ years I’ve been working in the disability field, both in paid and voluntary roles. In 2004 I went self-employed to provide a range of disability equality training and consultancy services to the Local Authority, businesses and voluntary sector organisations. Over the years my work increasingly moved towards supporting individual disabled people receiving Local Authority funding to pay for their own care to get the support they needed to live independently in the community.
Although I still provide support to individuals and carry out some training, in 2020 I decided I needed a change to doing something more creative … so Theresa Lydia Crafts was born. In 2021 my friend, local writer and poet Penny Pepper and I moved into the studio at The Clifton Centre in St Leonards, where we both worked on our respective businesses and began to develop our creative space St Leonards Inclusive Crafty Creatives (SLICC), so we could share our passion for creativity with others,.
Theresa Lydia Crafts produces a range of handmade knitted, fabric and printed products
Knitted scarves, headbands, hand / wrist warmers, reusable cloths, bags and cushion covers
Fabric bags, cushion covers, hankerchiefs, reusable cloths, napkins and covered notebooks
Printed mugs, coasters and notebooks
Please visit the different sections of the website to find out more about my work and the work of SLICC. You can purchase my products by visitin my Etsy shop.
If you have any queries please send me an e-mail