Turning Creativity into Opportunity: Stories from the Re:Create Programme

Re:Create – Creative United’s business resilience programme – has supported 200+ creative entrepreneurs with mentoring, networking and practical business guidance since it launched in 2021 in collaboration with Wandsworth Borough Council.

For many participants, the programme provided a valuable opportunity to step back, refine their direction and connect with others navigating similar creative paths. For three participants – artist and creative coach Elaine Giles, textile artist Tiah Algalarrondo and designer Victoria Harman – the programme offered different forms of support at key moments in their creative journeys.

For artist and creative coach Elaine, creativity emerged as a powerful force during a challenging period of her life. Originally trained as a speech and language therapist, she spent two decades working with adults and children, alongside ten years as a mediator.

However, a period of chronic illness brought her professional life to an unexpected halt. During that time, art became central to her recovery. As Elaine describes it, “Art became the Antidote,” providing both a creative outlet and a way to rebuild confidence.

Elaine Giles, The Windmill, Hydra, Greece (left) & Nympsfield (right)

Today, she combines creating artwork with leading workshops that encourage others to explore their creativity and wellbeing. She believes creativity is something everyone can access: “Everyone is creative in some way,” she says.

Working mainly with ink and watercolour, Elaine’s practice explores the relationship between pigment, water and paper – what she calls “the magic of pigment, water, and gravity on various paper surfaces.” Her work has been exhibited in venues including Bankside Gallery and the Mall Galleries in London. At the same time, she has delivered workshops for organisations such as the University of the Third Age, the National Trust and Wandsworth Brighter Living initiatives.

Elaine Giles, Rolex’s Shadow

In 2023 she joined the Re:Create programme after attending creative sessions at the National Trust’s 575 Wandsworth Road. Through the programme, she worked with coach Nat Harrison, who helped her develop practical plans for her creative work. The experience helped her address long-standing challenges around confidence. As Elaine explains, the mentoring helped her “reduce perfectionism and self-doubt and begin to increase confidence in my artwork and much-needed business acumen.”

Since then, she has organised community sketch events, exhibited locally and continues to develop her creative coaching and art practice under a new platform, MakeaMark.Art. Elaine is also excited to offer readers of this article 5 special half-price 1:1 coaching sessions on a 1st-come, 1st-served basis and welcomes commissions. Find her contact info at the end of this article.

For textile artist Tiah, creativity has been a lifelong passion. Born to French and Portuguese parents and now based in London, she remembers creating from an early age. “I loved making things from my mum’s leftover fabric scraps, creating collage cards as birthday gifts for my twin,” she says.

Her creative practice evolved further after discovering textile art at Art4Space, a community arts centre in Stockwell. Encouraged to pursue textiles more seriously, she went on to establish her community interest company, The Arty-Crafty Crescent Club, which celebrates creativity and culture through community arts activities.

Tiah’s practice is rooted in experimentation with materials. As a volunteer at Scrapstore in Tooting, she often finds inspiration in discarded materials and unexpected textures. Her approach to making is intuitive. “My creative process is very intuitive; I don’t overthink it. I prefer to dive straight into making and see where the materials lead me.”

In 2023 she joined Re:Create shortly after launching her CIC. At the time, she was new to community arts funding and business development and was looking for guidance. The programme paired her with coach Nat Harrison, whose experience supporting neurodivergent creatives proved particularly valuable. As someone with autism and ADHD, Tiah had previously struggled with online training environments, but the one-to-one mentoring format worked well. “The mentoring gave me clarity, and I finished the programme with much more confidence than when I started,” she says.

Images from Tiah’s past events

Beyond the mentoring sessions, the networking opportunities were equally important. Tiah describes meeting “inspiring, interesting, and genuinely lovely people” through the programme. These connections helped her feel part of a wider creative community. “Being part of this network has boosted my confidence in developing my projects and sharing my work more widely,” she explains.

Since taking part in Re:Create, Tiah has continued to grow her practice. She became a community partner at Battersea Arts Centre for 2024–26, completed a six-month artist residency at Balham Library and was selected as one of the neurodivergent artists in Liberty Festival’s research and development programme.

For Victoria, founder of Rajani Baker, entrepreneurship represents a meeting point between creative curiosity and years of experience in the fashion and retail industry. Originally from New York City, Victoria built her career working with global brands including Betsey Johnson, ASOS and Levi’s before serving as Vice Consul for Retail and Luxury for North America at the UK’s Department for International Trade.
Despite this experience, she had always worked on the commercial side of fashion. “Those roles were always more on the marketing, operations, and strategy side of the business,” she explains.

A turning point came in 2023 following a serious neurological illness and redundancy from her role on TikTok’s e-commerce team. Rather than returning immediately to corporate work, she decided to explore the design side of the industry by taking a course at Central Saint Martins.“What I had seen in many businesses was a creative founder paired with a business-minded partner,” she says. “I wanted to challenge that traditional operating model.”

Images courtesy of Rajani Baker

The experience gave her the confidence to launch Rajani Baker, a curated online destination for gifts and accessories inspired by Indian craftsmanship. Designed in London and produced by artisans in India, the brand combines traditional techniques with contemporary design.

Victoria is particularly passionate about celebrating craft traditions. “It’s really important to give credit where it is due and to highlight the handmade element and the artisans behind the products,” she says. Shortly after launching the business, she joined the Re:Create programme, where she was paired with mentor Stuart Balmer. Having access to a mentor with experience in the fashion industry proved invaluable. “I really appreciate that I was assigned a mentor who was an entrepreneur and had started a business in my immediate field,” she says.

The sessions helped her explore new directions for the brand, including expanding into wholesale markets. They also offered something equally important for a solo founder – a trusted sounding board. “I found it very helpful to talk through updates and get a ‘sense check’ from someone who’d been there before,” she explains.

While each participant came to Re:Create from a very different starting point, their experiences highlight the same core benefits: access to mentoring, practical advice and a supportive network of fellow creatives.

For Elaine, the programme helped build confidence and direction after years of developing her practice independently. For Tiah, it provided guidance as she launched a community arts organisation. For Victoria, it offered strategic insight and connections during the early stages of building a creative brand. Together, their stories demonstrate how tailored support can help creative entrepreneurs develop both their artistic vision and the practical skills needed to sustain it.

As Victoria reflects when encouraging others to apply for Re:Create, or similar creative business support programmes: “You have nothing to lose and potentially so much to gain – so definitely go for it.”

Photos from past Re:Create events. Credits Rebecca Cresta (left) and Oliver Goodwin (middle & right)

Elaine Giles 
Website: www.elainergiles.wixsite.com
Instagram: @elainergiles
Email for enquiries: resonance247@gmail.com

Tiah Algalarrondo
Website: www.bytiah.wixsite.com
Instagram: @tiah_algalarrondo
Email for enquiries: Tiah.Algalarrondo@gmail.com

Victoria Harman
Website: www.rajanibaker.com
Instagram: @rajani_baker
Email for enquiries: hello@rajanibaker.com

Elaine Gines, Cindy at the Mall Galleries