Where it all began....
QUILLING
For as long as I can remember I've had a passion for paper, pens, paint, poetry, positive thinking and the power of the pen.Even as a kid I was never happier than when I was writing, painting, glueing and sticking and things haven't changed much since then.
My first venture into self-employment was when I became obsessed with Quilling. This involved rolling thin strips of coloured paper into various shapes and making larger pictures from them. I became so obsessed that I wanted to show and teach others how to do it.
Buying the paper strips was costly and if I wanted to make and sell kits at Craft Fairs I had to find a way to produce these cost-effectively. So I bought a stack of rainbow paper and hired a machine and cut it myself. I realised that through quilling I finally had a way to cope with and survive my depression which was pretty bad at the time. Winters especially was my worst season and S.A.D. hadn't even been invented then.
I realised that through creating something I was uplifted and transported into another time and place where things weren't quite so bad and always there was something new to learn and something to look forward to, instead of dwelling on my misery.
In Spring 1988 I was shown a newspaper calling for artists and craftspeople who were offering something new to call for an interview to perhaps teach others. After a 2 hour long session where I probably talked non stop about my passion, my first teaching post was born.
I finally found my calling and purpose. Playing with paper AND getting paid for it into the bargain!
In June of that year, I had a phone call from a local Further Education College asking if I would consider teaching there too. By then I had found my feet and was truly in the swing of things are truly having a ball, of course, I said YEs and the day after another call from another education authority and a third YEs sealed the deal. I couldn't believe my luck. I was to start in September.
September came as a shock! I turned up with quilling gear and my students came with pens and ink. What? Quilling? You mean it's not pen and ink and fancy writing? Oh dear!
I promised them if they stuck out till half term I would learn enough to be 6 weeks ahead of them and we would in fact learn calligraphy.... and so started the biggest adventure of my life!
CALLIGRAPHY
I threw myself into learning everything I could and decided that as long as I stayed one step ahead I knew more than the people I was teaching. Then at the Christmas of that year, I was given as a thank you present a 2 colour piece of calligraphy that blew me away! On the back of that framed piece of calligraphy was a written statement explaining the piece of work, its contents, the inspiration behind it and the artist who had created it. His name was Robert Cooper and I quickly traced him and called him to let him know how much it had touched me and how I admired his skill. The words 'Be still and know that I am God' didn't resonate with me on a religious level, but on a spiritual level and after fighting cancer and having to learn to trust and let go they certainly did! I was invited to join a calligraphy group who met once a month in a neighbouring county.
MY SPIRITUAL PATH
Now I need to talk about this and the dreaded cancer word. Through cancer, I had to look at alternative things. ANY alternative thing that would help me cope and see my way clear of the prospect of leaving this mortal coil. I get into crystals, Bach Flower Remedies, homoeopathy, positive thinking books, books on depression, motivational books, quotations, colour therapy spiritual healing, herbalism, yoga, Buddhism, healing.... in fact, I tried and learned everything I could in order to self heal or at least give it everything I had. If it was my time to go I wasn't going out quietly! I had to win my battle because the alternative was far too terrifying!
BECOMING A JOURNAL JUNKIE
I needed a way of recording all I was learning and as I already loved books this was an easy one for me. I had journals for everything! Dream Journals, Quotation Journals, Journals to record my herbs, a healing journal, and the most important journal the one where I wrote down my thoughts, fears and worries in order to work through them.
BOOKBINDING
Strangely my introduction to bookbinding was at a calligraphy class! That may sound mighty strange, but there's only so much calligraphy you can add to a wall right? Making books became fascinating to me. The choice of paper, the enormous amount of bindings especially when you step away from conventional and traditional bindings and in Creative Bookbinding. The possibilities were endless.
And of course, the more you learn the more experimental you become. This alongside calligraphy was something that sparked my imagination and gave me a passion which I still have to this day. I get bored easily so the fact that I had found not one but two things that seemed to have an endless learning curve was amazing for me.
I went to every class going, joined lots of groups, shared what I learnt at these groups, held summer schools, taught at summer schools and even got international calligraphers to come and teach. The friendships and connections I made with these people all over the world, I still have today.
ALL CHANGE 1997
The dramatic events of 1997 changed my life forever. Thankfully this happened gradually because if it had happened suddenly I think I would have gone over the edge!
After losing my glasses on the beach I decided to book an eye appointment and get new glasses. I only needed them for distance but as winter was approaching it seemed like a sensible thing to do/ Long story short, he told me I had a rare eye condition and within 2 and half weeks I was in Aberdeen Royal under a professor I was told I would lose my sight and was given a bucketful of tablets to try and hold it back. Within 5 months my centre vision had gone and ironically it also went into the other eye! I continued doing calligraphy for as long as I could but I would be lying if I said I wasn't struggling. The fact I was working out of my peripheral vision and with high-powered magnifiers bent double over a drawing board eventually became impossible. I continued for as long as I could and tried my best but the bending over and eye strain, well the pain was too much to bare.
WEDDING STATIONERY - PIVOT 1
Bizarrely my constant need and desire to create didn't wane so I found new freedom in the way of a computer and lots of new 'calligraphic; fonts. From here was born the wedding stationery side of my business. This continued for the next 10 or so years...... until the dreaded lockdown and the 'C' word we won't mention.
SUBLIMATION PERSONALISED GOFTS, T-SHIRTS AND PHOTO-PRINTED ITEMS - PIVOT 2
In life I'm always surprised how strangely something monumental can take you on a completely different path and lead you to somewhere you never though of or considered,
I'm not gonna lie, Covid knocked the hell out of my business. For the whole 2 years of 2020 and 2021 I hardly did any weddings. What wedding went ahead the numbers were greatly pared down and with most invitation orders taking between 6 and 10 hours there was just no way I could charge and be paid for my time especially as the largest amount of that time was taken up with design and consultation so a small order of sat 20 cards and a total of 40 pounds income just didn't stack up and was unlikely to pay my rent never mind any wages. So I bit the bullet and bought a sublimation printer which meant I could print onto ceramic, slate, polyester, acrylic, aluminium and other strange and wonderful surfaces.
So here we are JANUARY 2023
Weddings still aren;t coming in or at least if weddings are going ahead they certainly aren't coming my way so I'm going to concentrate more on the sublimation side of things and the small business stationery. All being well I will still have a business at the end of it. Who knows what will happen. Perhaps another pivot? But whatever happens, you can be damn sure I'll give it my all!
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