The box is representing my covid stories doing “Speak out with Danielle” which was a video series online and I done it from my dining room. And the top section is of outside when I went for walks with my friend representing getting out in the fresh air, and re-starting the week.

Danielle's Box

I was doing a thing about lockdown, so we did bits of painting and we cut some shapes out. We cut the virus pictures out. When I was in lockdown the sheep made me feel happy. The words on the front of the box: Fed up, bored were the things I felt during lockdown. Inside the box, I made a wallpaper of the covid virus. And inside there’s an image of me wearing a mask.

Mike's Box, words spoken by Danielle

It’s a memory box of Polly. (She) squawked a lot. Screamed the house down next to her! And there’s some bead work I did on the ground (of the box) The inside lid is when we came out of lockdown. We went to London, Barnes Common, we went to a memory day for Marc Bolan.  
My box is about my memories of Polly who got me through lockdown, my bead work that kept me going and Nick, my gig buddy. We met up for coffees and walked around town. It was like a ghost town when we walked round!

Bernie speaks to Noelle about his box

My box is my drawings in lockdown. I have done some drawing. My homemade masks that I did in lockdown. When there was no masks online, people had to make their own masks so I made my one. An then I got my cat who died at the end of lockdown and then photos of wildlife near to my area. 

If I have time I would like to have my drawing of how I felt in lockdown, when I just wanted  to be left alone.  And if I have got time I’ll put a thank you to the NHS staff and the doctors surgery because my doctors surgery was open during lockdown.

Sarah's Box

My box on the outside is covered with face masks and I coloured those whilst at home. Blue, and lilac and some green. Some orange going on. 

And then inside, we did some printmaking a few weeks ago and cyanotypes. I cut these words out how back when covid, about how the queues were so long they went back to the end of the street. Just to get some shopping. And then on the inside it’s got “I live on my own it was very isolating.” With an image of a covid self-testing kit you had to put up your mouth and nose. My support service had to post it with my date of birth. 

And then I found that on my phone  -a picture of a rainbow that someone did on the street that’s just near me. And then a picture of everybody on zoom picture of the sofa then a picture of the sea. And the skyline and a nice image – all this  this might be coming to an end in the next couple of weeks.

Matthew's Box

It’s a lovely box. There’s butterflies on there, and I’ve been painting it and doing embroidery work. that’s a lovely one, and it did take me long to do. All different colours are on it, like a rainbow. It’s very nice. I did a flower and butterflies because I like it, I like the pictures. 

During lockdown I sat in the garden and we saw butterflies in the garden. They have got daisies in the garden – lovely. Its got everything there! All different colours. I have also done  a self portrait. That’s me. On blue paper, inside the box. I like doing the embroidery, it’s good. I painted the blue butterfly. It sums up my lockdown – butterflies and flowers in the garden.

Susan speaks to Noelle about her Box

My box is all about Harrys. It was my favourite café. I used to go in there a lot. They had all my favourite food in there. They had sandwiches, potatoes, fizzy drinks and they had tea and coffee. I used to go in there with Mum and Dad. It was a lovely place. But when I went there to back, I found out Harrys was closed. It was dark. All of the chairs were on the tables, nobody was in there. So Harrys was closed, I can’t go there again. If it changes, it won’t be Harrys anymore, it will be a different café, it won’t be the same, like it used to be.

The front of the box is a print of me and my boyfriend Stuart. He’s never been to Harrys before. I thought, as that was on the front, we could pretend that me and my boyfriend were in Harrys having our favourite thing like a potato. That was my decision to put that on, as we hadn’t seen each other since Covid. 

Harrys was always there, sometimes opened, sometimes shut, there’s no lights or nothing all dark inside and nobody in Harrys anymore.

Gail's Box

I did it with Boris Johnson, with the famous ‘Stay Safe’ thing. And I’ve turned him in to something else. And I’ve got me in there. What I did when lockdown was on. Blue gloves, a covid test, and we are going to put me behind bars. So it looks like I’m in prison.

The outside of the box is green and purple with a few stickers on. Cos I thought, well might make it stand out. So I went all through my room and thought, yep that will do.

Brighton and Hove Speak Out