Sheffield artist appears on Kirstie's Handmade Christmas Channel 4 TV show

Kat Taylor, aged 39, has been making cut paper collages for years, but has only been able to go professional and start doing commissions since her four-year-old daughter started school in September.

She said: "I'm doing a piece at the moment and the lady sent me a cross stitch pattern designed by her mum, sixty years ago. Sometimes things represent family members who have died, and they can be really terrifying to paint over and cut up. I think my art is one of those things to hear the backstory of, because otherwise it's just paper stuck to other bits of paper. It's important to hear the details."

Ms Taylor, who lives in Deepcar and has lived in Sheffield since she was aged eight, had to keep the details of what she made on the show a secret and ahead of her TV appearance she could only say that it is something very tiny. The parts of it are smaller than my little finger. It's really tiny, really detailed. It is a miniature festive scene somewhere you wouldn't expect to find it. And it does a little magic trick!"

Ms Taylor lost her dad, Ged, to Parkinson's and has used art to help process her grief, by using his papers to make a collage of the last place they visited together, Beaumaris in Anglesey.

She said: "I used the last birthday card I gave him, pages from his German dictionary that he always carried around with him, his sheet music. I found a photo online, and when I zoomed in on the bench, I realised it was my dad. An anonymous photographer had managed to get that photo of him looking out to sea. He went blind from the Parkinson's and never got to see my art. I think he would be very inwardly proud - he was very introverted and didn't often say how he felt but I know without a doubt he would be bursting with pride.

"My idea is that I can help other people the same way. It is a nice way for people to keep loved ones close. I feel like it is something I can do for other people."

Ms Taylor and the other artists had to go down to Devon to film for the show, and were picked up at 5:30am from their hotel. She said: "It was still dark, it felt like we had been kidnapped! It was all very mysterious, and was a really full-on but good day. We all got along really well. When I got back to the hotel room I fell asleep straight away."

She is hoping that her daughter might be featured on the episode too, as she sent over some footage of them nature journalling. "I suffer from depression and have ME, and found it helps me to be outside in nature. We fill a bag with art supplies, and find insects or leaves that look interesting, and do drawings and pencil rubbings.

Ms Taylor's collages are currently only sold at the Curo Gallery in Hillsborough, but she takes commissions on Instagram or through her website. Her episode of Kirstie's Handmade Christmas aired on Channel 4 at 5pm, on December 23.