Student weaves Welsh heritage and nature into her furniture-making designs

Through the medium of Welsh, Hephzibah creates work that celebrates the beauty of Welsh heritage, natural materials, and native botanics.” Deborah Elsaesser, Furniture Making Lecturer 

Hephzibah Huggins is an inspiring and creative furniture design student who weaves her passion for local nature and the Welsh language into her work.

Her inspiration comes from flowers and animals from Wales with old abbeys and industrial buildings playing their part alongside the Snowdon Lily (Lloydia serotina), a flower that only grows in Snowdonia. 

She also uses woven cloth and home-made dyes from plants growing at the National Wool Museum’s natural dye garden for her upholstery work, creating deep reds with Rubia tinctorum, also known as the madder plant. “I take a particular interest when habitats are restored and living things that had disappeared come back to life,” said Hephzibah. “I made an enamel brooch at art school that portrays the raft spider. They now live on the lily pads that grow on the Neath Canal after being cleaned.”

Hephzibah’s first language is Welsh and although the course is delivered in English, Welsh is the language she uses in her work and sketch books and she always submits work and receives feedback in written Welsh. 

She joined the course with the aim of creating beautiful boxes to sell her home-made jewellery and she acquired these skills on a jewellery and ceramics degree course at Carmarthen School of Art. The scale of the work is different but she’s learning about wood and wood finishing, installing hinges, laser cutting and cutting various joints. 

Hephzibah added: “I paint motifs on the furniture like the very rare flowers that only grow in Snowdonia and this draws attention to their rarity and gives anyone who sees my work a talking point. Old abbeys are also a feature of my work and I made a marquetry picture that shows Talley Abbey on a table top.

“Recently I have taken an interest in upholstery. I upholstered a stool with cloth woven at the National Wool Museum and I dyed the cloth red with the roots of a plant known as madder, which grows in the wool museum’s natural dye garden. I got help from Susan Martin, who looks after the garden and on my next piece I hope to dye cloth in indigo with woad leaves. It’s a much bigger challenge than colouring red but I like challenges and seeing my visions come to light.”

What makes Hephzibah even more remarkable is that she has a rare form of blood cancer and she has gone through a number of chemotherapy treatments and blood transfusions with countless visits to hospital for at least two weeks at a time. “The college has been extremely good and has looked after me,” she said. “I get extended deadlines and my teacher has given me a chair with a comfortable back when I get tired. I can’t walk for long but when we go for an outing, the teachers make sure I can do everything the others do, like hiring a beach wheelchair when we went to Poppit Sands.”

Hephzibah once swam for Wales and holds a Welsh bronze medal in swimming; she also worked as a lifeguard and trained before college every day. She is not well enough to swim anymore although says her health is gradually getting better.

Despite the tiredness and pain that Hephzibah often carries, she still uses her free sessions to take part in the national enrichment programme with the college’s Be Ambitious team, which helps with study planning and preparing for business. She is also learning Spanish and has completed a ‘creativity in business’ course. 

Hephzibah says that the furniture course has brought something positive throughout her health challenges and it’s given her a purpose to show up to every lesson where she is making her unique mark in the workshop. 

Hephzibah’s is amazing and her story is a testament to the power of determination. She  reminds us that it’s never too late to take on new challenges and that with courage and perseverance, any goal can become a reality.”  Kayleigh Brading, Be Active Coordinator

Leaning on her sports-minded resilience, she also competed for the college in a duathlon run by Colleges Wales. “I enjoyed being back in sport and I’m looking forward to doing a longer distance next year,” she said. 

Kayleigh Brading, Be Active coordinator at Coleg Ceredigion and Coleg Sir Gâr added: “Hephzibah is amazing. She first contacted me last May to ask if she could take part in the college duathlon and with the support of Colleges Wales, we made a few small adjustments so she could participate.

“Before the event, our contact had only been over the phone, but meeting her in person was something special. You could see straight away that she has this quiet strength about her — the kind that inspires everyone around her.

“Her story is a testament to the power of determination and Hephzibah reminds us that it’s never too late to take on new challenges and that with courage and perseverance, any goal can become a reality.”  

Completing her course next June and looking to the future, Hephzibah wants to set up a business creating and selling quality art, ceramics, jewellery and furniture. 

Deborah Elsaesser, furniture making lecturer at Coleg Ceredigion said: “Through the medium of Welsh, Hephzibah creates work that celebrates the beauty of Welsh heritage, natural materials, and native botanics. 

“Each project is extensive, colourful and always beautifully presented. Even while facing significant health challenges, Hephzibah continued her studies with remarkable determination and we were able to support her on a tailored part-time course. Hephzibah’s strength and perseverance continues to inspire us all.”