My story so far
I blog and post on social media all the time, but I've always kept my posts about my work, it feels right now to maybe start to tell my story.
So, apart from all the obvious stuff like, I'm married to an amazing man and we have two fab daughters what else can I tell you??
I know, I'll start in August 2012 because I feel this is when my life took a huge change in direction. I was faced with the death of my Dad and being a daddies girl that has to be the single most biggest hurdle I've had to overcome, shortly after this I learnt my job in the legal industry was under threat of redundancy, it was only talk at this stage and did not become reality until 2013.
I was made redundant in May 2014 and although I secured employment in the same sector I just felt like I'd had enough and wanted a change. With some careful planning and the support of my family, instead of going back into the same job, somehow I managed to get an offer from the University of Bolton and I put myself through a 1 year Art & Design foundation where I was given a Chancellors Award for Outstanding Achievement, then followed a 3 year Textiles and Surface Design Degree.
I also started working for Tesco part time in 2015, and I still work for Tesco now part time, I work as Colleague Admin which means my job is to do any administration to help look after my Tesco colleagues.
I graduated from University in July 2018 and immediately was offered a contract with Black Cherry Studio designing prints for fashion. I was also invited to take part in a hand painting project with Alexander McQueen which took me to London and then Florence, Italy. I was also scouted by Trendease International and I exhibited my work at MoOD, Brussels on the Launch Pad.
(You can read some of my earlier blogs for more details about these exciting opportunities).
Unfortunately my luck ran out in February 2019 when I underwent a routine surgery which caused problems with my heart. Despite having a couple of close calls being rushed to A&E with a dangerously low heart beat, I kept going with my artwork the best I could after all I spent 5 months housebound so there wasn't much else I could do.
I had a surgery to my heart in November 2019 and finally started to feel like I could see a light at the end of the tunnel. I was invited by Trendease International to showcase my work in their New Talent area of the Surface Design Show in London in February 2020. Although I was not in my best health I managed to get through this and was quite hopeful for the future until dreaded Covid 19 struck sending us all into lockdown in March 2020.
For me and probably a lot of other people I felt 2020 was a write off, but I took the opportunity to focus on my health and as I started to feel better in 2021 I decided to start focusing on my own business again. I was still having some problems with my physical health and by now it was also taking a toll on my mental health.
With a lot of doctors and hospital appointments, tests, treatments etc I feel I turned a corner in 2022 and in particular when I underwent a 2nd heart operation in June 2022 which finally seems to have fixed the problem and I'm now starting to rebuild my fitness levels and life!
It feels like a bit of a sob story so far, but that is not my intention. I'm an optimistic person and I always look for the positive in everything. Having gone through so much in a short space of time it's made me value the good things even more. So I look for the opportunities and celebrations in life, no matter how big or small.
Hopefully you can read in my older blogs and my future blogs about various opportunities that have come my way and those little life celebrations which add a bit of positive colour to our day.
I usually feature my latest designs in my blogs, so you'll probably see lots of birds and flora as most of my work is inspired by nature and in particular my garden.
I work from my studio which leads out to my garden and in summer I have a whole glass wall which I can open up so my garden and studio become one.
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