Claire Dean
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clairedean.bsky.social
Claire Dean
@clairedean.bsky.social
260 followers 240 following 100 posts
Writer & maker. Short stories, zines & book arts. Also a conservator. Mostly to be found cleaning and repairing old manuscripts, maps & plans in an archive.

#BSL sign name, bird 🐦‍⬛
📍Lancashire, North of England
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clairedean.bsky.social
Sketching stone on stone paper at #MorecambeBaySketchClub today
Black line drawing on white stone paper showing ripples in the sandstone doorway above.
November 9, 2025 at 4:40 PM
clairedean.bsky.social
Sand patterns
Morecambe beach sand dimpled by the tide. The low winter sun reflected in the slick of saltwater.
November 9, 2025 at 4:38 PM
clairedean.bsky.social
In the attic at Salts Mill, Bradford
Skeins of blue fabric stretched across a flagged floor. A beam of sunlight pierces the glass roof in a derelict attic space.
November 9, 2025 at 4:35 PM
clairedean.bsky.social
It was an absolute joy to be at the launch of Myriam Frey's (@dustynewrose.bsky.social 's) first collection, 'The Building Inspector', published by the indomitable @nightjarpress.bsky.social
Myriam reading from her book in Saul Hay gallery. A white woman with glasses and great earrings, casual clothes and white trainers. Myriam smiles as publisher Nick Royle gestures to the contents page of the book. Nick is a white man with grey beard and thick black rimmed glasses. The red brick gallery from the outside and Myriam can be seen signing copies of her book through the four-paned window.
October 18, 2025 at 9:28 AM
clairedean.bsky.social
The heart-shaped wood in the Lune Valley Gorge #CommuterGaze
A purple bracken covered hillside with a heart-shaped copse of trees (mostly green but some just starting to turn autumnal brown) and a blur of traintrack, river and trees in the foreground.
October 3, 2025 at 7:03 AM
clairedean.bsky.social
Glad to hear they're letting you WFH! This was me in one of the buildings I work in a fortnight ago 😂. When I retrained, I didn't realise saving old paper things was going to be so full of adventure!
Claire in hardhat getting rained on with plastic shrouding the shelves behind.
October 1, 2025 at 4:52 PM
clairedean.bsky.social
October commute
View from train window crossing the River Leven estuary in Morecambe Bay. Strata of sand, grey water, grey sky and a window full of raindrops.
October 1, 2025 at 7:29 AM
clairedean.bsky.social
Barrow looking beautiful on my dinnertime wander yesterday.
Red brick promenade, railings, bright blue sea in the Walney channel and house in the distance on Walney island under a blue sky with small white scudding clouds.
September 26, 2025 at 6:43 AM
clairedean.bsky.social
At my dayjob in an archive today, workmen started bringing me the retro rubbish they found in the loft, including a 1960s fag packet and a 1990s coke can. There was also a 1980s page 3 (not pictured 😂)
White and blue pack of 10 embassy regal (empty) and crumpled red coke can.
September 18, 2025 at 7:08 PM
clairedean.bsky.social
Drawing the seaweed pools on Hest Bank Wharf at today's #MorecambeBaySketchClub
Sketchbook with charcoal swirls held just above a pool full of sand, stones, broken shells and seaweed Gutweed-covered stones rise from a pool with grey sea and sky above.
September 14, 2025 at 2:52 PM
clairedean.bsky.social
Moved my eldest for university yesterday. He's still in the north but right across at the other side 😭
Image of roadworks, no entry sign, the silver humps of the Sage Gateshead building, Newcastle in the distance, all under a stormy sky with rainbow.
September 12, 2025 at 8:35 AM
clairedean.bsky.social
This is a bit exciting :) Tickets available here: www.brasseriezedel.com/events/wordt...
MyAnna Buring reads 'Feather Girls' by Claire Dean. Photos of MyAnna and Claire. Seasons of Yearning. Best British Short Stories. 20th September 2pm at The Crazy Coqs. Word Theatre UK. Seasons of Yearning. Word Theatre UK. Headshots of five actors and five writers. Full event details via link in post
September 9, 2025 at 6:57 AM
clairedean.bsky.social
Sometimes my dayjob brings niche excitements, like how ridiculously happy I was to get a reduction in rat wee staining with minimal moisture migration using low cost, cut-to-size gellan gum gel yesterday.
1920s landscape design plan on thin paper showing a pencil, ink and watercolour gate and walls with two large brown stains and nibble marks along the bottom edge The same plan with the brown stains much reduced.
September 6, 2025 at 10:04 AM
clairedean.bsky.social
My wonderful parents-in-law. Married 60 years ago in Yorkshire ❤️
A wedding photograph outside a church. A black Jamaican family and white Yorkshire family united and happily smiling at the camera.
August 25, 2025 at 1:25 PM
clairedean.bsky.social
Sketched the lovely cool, still-damp seaweed today at #MorecambeBaySketchClub
A sketchbook open on a continuous line drawing in black ink of curtains of seaweed on the rocks above the mud. The sea is in the far distance with the hills of the Furness peninsular behind. Long strands of brown seaweed hanging down over the rocks and pooling on the mud.
August 17, 2025 at 4:59 PM
clairedean.bsky.social
Early morning cloud train to Carlisle
View from train window: the green hills of the Lune Valley Gorge with a layer of white cloud part way up, running alongside the train track. The sun shines through the haze in a blue sky.
August 12, 2025 at 6:32 AM
clairedean.bsky.social
According to a brilliant book I'm reading (The Lichen Museum by A.Laurie Palmer) these little wonders make up about 8% of the biomass of the world. Growing quietly everywhere and nearly always unnoticed.
A stone wall with three whitish crustose lichens growing on it. Ivy climbing above and leafy trees in the background.
August 9, 2025 at 5:16 PM
clairedean.bsky.social
Beach architecture by honeycomb worms
A reef constructed of sand and broken-shell tunnels extended out from barnacle-covered rocks over a pool of seawater Close up of the worm's sand tunnels clustered in a honeycomb formation and strewn with bright green gutweed
July 31, 2025 at 12:36 PM
clairedean.bsky.social
Out for my lunchbreak walk in Barrow, I found an abandoned shop that's very much alive.
A upvc window with alive and dead vegetation pressing against the glass from the inside
July 24, 2025 at 3:13 PM
clairedean.bsky.social
Classic Morecambe Bay weather at #MorecambeBaySketchClub today for our first birthday draw! Thanks for a fantastic year of sketching @debbieyare.bsky.social!
Black clouds on the horizon with sketchers scattered across the pebbled beach. Hiding under a leaky tarp to draw in a tangle of seaweed and branches. Me in yellow raincoat peeking out from under the tarp between drawings.
July 20, 2025 at 3:17 PM
clairedean.bsky.social
A Flash Gordon sky outside
Sunset over silhouetted semis. A riot of colour in the clouds.
July 16, 2025 at 9:01 PM
clairedean.bsky.social
Exploring Morecambe's sunken boat caves.
Looking into a partially sunken boat on Morecambe's North Beach. Sun shines through a window onto miniature sandy banks and a pool of water. Barnacles grow on every surface.
July 7, 2025 at 5:21 PM
clairedean.bsky.social
Stalactites forming on the ceiling in Carnforth train station
Thin stalactites hanging from the ceiling under a leaky skylight. Grey sky above.
June 26, 2025 at 7:47 AM
clairedean.bsky.social
A sitting still #MorecambeBaySketchClub for me today after minor foot surgery earlier this week. It was beautifully bleak at the edge of Middleton Sands.
Saltmarsh, sands, sea and dark clouds scribbled in charcoal Paths of water on the sands under heavy grey clouds. Other sketchclubbers drawing in the distance
June 15, 2025 at 4:24 PM
clairedean.bsky.social
The walk across the sands from Walney island to Piel island #MorecambeBay
A group of people in waterproofs walking across the wet sands at low tide towards Piel island in the distance Inside Piel castle. A ruined tower is visible through a weather worn sandstone doorway. Close up of weatherworn red sandstone with channels running through it. The expanse of the sands at low tide, patterned with water marks, heading back to Walney with the industrial buildings of Barrow in the distance.
May 25, 2025 at 12:32 PM