New for 2025: After a couple of years off, I have picked up the digital paints again to bring you an imagined scene from the Arctic night. A polar bear sits on an ice floe; we can only imagine what she is thinking while the Mirrie Dancers (Aurora borealis) light up the sky overhead. In the calm Arctic Ocean below, phytoplankton endure the long, cold, polar night and wait for the first light of spring.
Some of you may know of me or be aware of the motivation behind this series of cards from 2017-2023, but here’s a very quick introduction for those who don’t. I’m Helen Smith, an oceanographic technician at SAMS (Oban, UK), with a biogeochemistry background, and I enjoy creating art inspired by the ocean and the wonderful world of phytoplankton. This is my seventh (not consecutive) year of designing festive ocean science-inspired greeting cards, in memory of my friend and ocean scientist, Dr Chris Daniels who passed away in 2018. The Challenger Society also has ‘The Chris Daniels Early Career Grant’ in his memory to support Early Career researchers.
I appreciate budgets are really tight but if you’d like to send a non-traditional Christmas card, share some phytoplankton joy this festive season I encourage you to have a look at the cards.
All profits from these cards go to PLANETS cancer charity, who supported my friend Chris and gave him good quality of life in his last year. So far, we’ve raised over £6000 for the charity. For more information visit – www.planetscharity.org
You can find the cards on my website – drheks.co.uk/shop
Packs of 6 cards for £10 and individual cards are £2.50
Limited quantities of previous years’ designs are also available
You can also contact me directly via the link on my website
Thank you!
Helen Smith
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