A discarded shoe might become a robin. A loaf of bread transforms into a dog. Even a bar of chocolate becomes the Angel of the North.

It isn’t something she consciously tries to do. It’s how she sees the world.

“I just look at shapes,” she says, smiling. “I love turning ordinary things into something unexpected.”

That playful imagination is now on display in the heart of Dartford, where her sculpture called Blueprint stands proudly among the 30 giant bears on ellenor’s We’re Going on a Bear Hunt art trail.

Warm, friendly and full of personality, Blueprint may be dressed as a builder but look a little closer and you’ll notice the tiny details that make him feel far more like a character than a sculpture. There’s a notebook tucked into his pocket, a bunch of keys hanging from his workwear and an expression that seems ready to strike up a conversation.

It’s the kind of storytelling Nicola loves.

“I’m not a deep, emotional artist,” she laughs. “I just like making people smile.”

That philosophy has shaped a creative career spanning theatre design, interior design, teaching and community art projects. Today, alongside creating her own artwork, Nicola teaches art to primary school children, where she is affectionately known as “Mrs Maker”.

Her classroom is exactly as you might imagine.

“It’s messy,” she laughs. “The children paint on the windows, we make things from recycled materials and we’re always creating.”

Creativity, for Nicola, has never been about perfection. It’s about curiosity.

“I always encourage children to look at something and ask, ‘What else could this be?’”

Perhaps that’s why her own artwork feels so playful. On social media, everyday objects become quirky characters. Paintbrushes sprout wings. Chocolate bars become famous landmarks. Household items are transformed into animals with a few swishes and a vivid imagination.

She admits her brain never really switches off.

“I’ll see something and immediately think, ‘That looks like…’”

The ideas come constantly.

It’s a way of seeing the world that stretches back to childhood.

At just six years old, Nicola drew a picture declaring, When I grow up I want to be an artist.

Her mum kept it.

Today, it hangs framed on the wall of her home.

“I never imagined I’d actually become one,” she says. “But I’ve always been making things.”

She credits much of that to her family. She credits much of that to her family. Her father, a coach builder, encouraged her to use whatever she could find in his garage, while her grandmother attended art school at a time when that was unusual for a working-class woman.

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“I’ve always loved making something out of nothing.”

That resourcefulness still shapes everything she creates today.

If someone throws something away, Nicola is already wondering what it could become next.

Even Blueprint almost became something entirely different.

Like many artists, Nicola begins every commission with pages of ideas. Her original concept wasn’t the bear visitors can now discover around Dartford. Instead, she imagined a contemporary commuter complete with backpack, coffee cup and bike.

When that design wasn’t selected, she was invited back with a different brief.

The brief came from Esquire Developments, whose work centres on creating new homes and communities across Kent.

Nicola embraced the challenge, while making sure Blueprint still carried her own distinctive style.

“I wanted him to have safety glasses, a tape measure around his neck instead of a scarf and even a mobile phone in his back pocket,” she recalls.

Not every idea made the final design.

“Esquires wanted the sculpture to reflect their business, so we adapted the design.”

Far from seeing that as a compromise, Nicola sees it as collaboration.

“The important thing is that people enjoy Blueprint.”

And they do.

Although Blueprint celebrates construction, the inspiration runs deeper than bricks and mortar.

Living beside new housing developments, Nicola has spent time thinking about what makes a community thrive. For her, good design isn’t just about building homes. It’s about creating places where people want to live, connect and belong.

“I’d love to see new homes designed with the future in mind,” she says. “Things like solar panels, thoughtful green spaces and buildings that really enhance the area.”

That hope sits beneath the cheerful exterior of Blueprint.

It’s a reminder that good design isn’t just about what something looks like. It’s about how it helps shape people’s lives.

Public art trails have become one of Nicola’s favourite ways to share that thinking.

Since first taking part in a Wild in Art trail in 2016, she’s become slightly addicted.

This year alone she submitted around 35 designs, with nine selected.

But for Nicola, it has never been about seeing her work on display.

“It’s bringing people together,” she says. “You can do good by doing something you’re good at.”

“I love coming up with the ideas,” she says. “Usually I think of the name first, then the character grows from there.”

Supporting ellenor’s trail felt especially important.

“I think hospices are such an important cause. If something I’ve created can help raise awareness and money, then that’s a really lovely thing to be part of.”

Every sculpture on the trail helps tell that story. As families follow the bears across Dartford, they’re also helping raise vital funds so ellenor can continue providing hospice care and support for babies, children, adults and their families across North Kent and Bexley.

For Nicola, that’s something to feel proud of.

Recently, she visited another sculpture she’d designed for a different charity. Standing nearby, she listened as visitors admired it without realising the artist was beside them.

Her husband couldn’t resist.

“He said, ‘Do you know who designed it? My wife.’”

Nicola laughs at the memory.

Like many artists, she’s far more comfortable letting her work do the talking.

When asked to describe herself, Nicola pauses before smiling.

“I have always found it easier to express herself through art than through words.”

It feels like the perfect description of an artist who has spent a lifetime expressing herself through colour, shape and imagination rather than words.

Yet somehow, Blueprint tells both.

Standing proudly in the heart of Dartford, the cheerful builder isn’t just another sculpture on the trail. He’s a reminder that creativity can build communities just as surely as bricks and mortar. And as thousands of visitors discover Blueprint this summer, they’ll also be helping build something even more important: the future of hospice care for local families supported by ellenor.