Good to Bee Back
- Chesterfield Local
- 4 hours ago
- 3 min read
Sewing 'Bee' that is... we catch up with Karen Rogers to talk StraightCurves and 12 months off!
Words: Paul Chapman Images: Helen Rowan Photography
Five minutes talking to Karen, is always fun. You start off talking about one thing thinking you know where you'll go next but you end up somewhere completely unexpected with no idea how you got there.
Karen is the driving force behind StraightCurves the creative business at 104 Saltergate which opened in 2013. Alongside StraightCurves she works as a teacher. When running the business and taking on more hours at school became a bit much, she decided to take a year off to re-ground herself and decide what her future would hold.
After 12 months away she decided her future is a re-launched and reinvigorated StraightCurves bringing back our most popular courses that were put on hold, plus new events and lovely courses to look forward to.
While she’s been away the business has been in safe hands with Emma and Amy running things. Supported by the fantastic team of tutors, Alison (dressmaking), Lisa (art and bookbinding), Dee (traditional crafts), Carol (felting) and Fran (our life model). They are looking for another life model to start in 2026 too! If you would like to join their tutor team please get in touch through their website as Karen has plans to expand Straightcurves’ creative offering further.
Located on Saltergate since 2014 (and with her year out), Karen's enjoying her 10th anniversary in the present location. StraightCurves is home to all things arty and crafty, if you like; crochet, knitting, drawing, painting, beading, print and paper crafts, pottery and air drying polymer clay, sewing and dressmaking, felting and traditional craft plus seasonal activities you should check out the website where there’s something for everyone.
At school, Karen teaches food preparation and nutrition and this desire to pass on skills is apparent through all she does in the business at StraightCurves.
The relaunch will see crochet and sewing beginner’s courses plus pottery returning, as well as children’s parties which were always popular. She is also considering restarting after school clubs, check out the website to keep up to date of plans. Karen is keen to remind people of Book Club which meets once a month and is a popular place for people to get together and share their love of reading.
I was keen to know more about what Karen has been up to during a year off. Her travelling took her to Niagara Falls, the Canary Islands and she’ll shortly be off to Spain and then Ireland before returning to focus on the business, and reducing her hours at school.
Karen's not far away from turning 50 and has to some extent been working through a list of 50 things to do before 50, although she admits to only covering 12 of them so far... she might have to consider renaming it to ‘50 things in her 50s!’
Karen has also recently been diagnosed with ADHD which she feels explains a lot of her mannerisms and the way she approaches life, and to some extent it feels like it’s helped to come to grips with who she is and how she does stuff.
At the school where she works they’ve been focusing on 1% gains where you look at lots of small changes which together create a large impact. It's the approach the British Cycling team took under Dave Brailsford’s guidance when they won all the medals at the Olympics in 2016. Applying this to the business, together with her knowledge of her diagnosis seems to be working for her and bringing about big improvements.
Her re-involvement in the business was kickstarted following a branding photo shoot she undertook with Helen Rowan Photography. “It was whilst doing this I realised how much I love the business and love what I do,” she says, “so I decided to get more hands-on again putting my love back into StraightCurves.
“Running StraightCurves is a passion project more than a money making thing, obviously it has to cover the costs but we’re classified as a not for profit organisation so as long as I can pay our fantastic team and run the building, there’s a long-term future for us and the space it creates for those who love visiting.”
If you want to know more about StraightCurves see their website and follow them on socials.
The website is slowly filling up with all their lovely courses and workshops for the next academic year including old favourites with Karen, some new workshops with pottery tutor Vicky and summer kids workshops, so keep your eyes pealed for them.
If you’ve never been but like getting creative, choose a course go spend some creative time there and join the lovable local community that meets behind the purple door.
StraightCurves
104 Saltergate
Chesterfield S40 1NE
Comments