March Meet The Maker
What do you do when you are not creating?
When I am not wrapped up in soap making, card making, painting and crafting I am a full time school secretary at a Primary school. It is lovely to work closely with young children and watch them grow and develop as well as being a friendly face for all the parents and visitors. I live in Lancashire with my fiancé Alex and our ginger cat Pippin. We have a little terrace house which we have done up ourselves. I love changing rooms round, decorating and finding new fabrics or pieces to style a room with. We have a lot of vintage pieces of furniture including a repurposed cabinet which I have turned into a bar. In our spare time we run Pilates classes, lead at our local Beaver and Cub Scout groups and go on long walks. I also love to read and collect books on all subjects. We keep needing to buy more shelves to make room for them all!
What was your inspiration for Blue Sky Crafts?
I have always tried starting little arts and crafts businesses throughout my life but then life seems to get in the way! I used to make wooden jewellery, I tried painting commission pieces once upon a time but I feel that I am finally at a place in life where I can give my passion my undivided attention. I just love to create and love bringing joy to others through my craft. It helps that I work with likeminded people who also have their own businesses outside of their full time jobs. We let our inspiration and our passion bounce off each other and that is a wonderful thing!
When I am not wrapped up in soap making, card making, painting and crafting I am a full time school secretary at a Primary school. It is lovely to work closely with young children and watch them grow and develop as well as being a friendly face for all the parents and visitors. I live in Lancashire with my fiancé Alex and our ginger cat Pippin. We have a little terrace house which we have done up ourselves. I love changing rooms round, decorating and finding new fabrics or pieces to style a room with. We have a lot of vintage pieces of furniture including a repurposed cabinet which I have turned into a bar. In our spare time we run Pilates classes, lead at our local Beaver and Cub Scout groups and go on long walks. I also love to read and collect books on all subjects. We keep needing to buy more shelves to make room for them all!
What was your inspiration for Blue Sky Crafts?
I have always tried starting little arts and crafts businesses throughout my life but then life seems to get in the way! I used to make wooden jewellery, I tried painting commission pieces once upon a time but I feel that I am finally at a place in life where I can give my passion my undivided attention. I just love to create and love bringing joy to others through my craft. It helps that I work with likeminded people who also have their own businesses outside of their full time jobs. We let our inspiration and our passion bounce off each other and that is a wonderful thing!
What made you take the plunge to start your business and sell your wares?
Christmas this year was a tough one and through all the stress of shopping, buying presents and spending hundreds of pounds I realised that I didn’t want to spend the festive period like this again. I talked to Alex and we decided to do a homemade Christmas this year to help us find the joy that was missing last year. I floated round ideas of making our own cards, knitting everyone a scarf but also wanted to use it as an opportunity to try a few crafts that I haven’t done before. Soap making, candle making and needle felted art to name but a few.
We have also recently have made a conscious effort to live our lives in a more green way. Cutting down on plastic, waste and consumerism. I decided that instead of shower gel that comes in ‘one use plastic’ we should make our own soap. I wrote a blog post titled ‘Blue Sky Goes Green’ and that is when I decided that I could sell my soap and other ‘green’ crafts to friends and family. Within the hour I had created a business logo, Instagram account and was researching rubber stamps and Blue Sky Crafts was born.
Christmas this year was a tough one and through all the stress of shopping, buying presents and spending hundreds of pounds I realised that I didn’t want to spend the festive period like this again. I talked to Alex and we decided to do a homemade Christmas this year to help us find the joy that was missing last year. I floated round ideas of making our own cards, knitting everyone a scarf but also wanted to use it as an opportunity to try a few crafts that I haven’t done before. Soap making, candle making and needle felted art to name but a few.
We have also recently have made a conscious effort to live our lives in a more green way. Cutting down on plastic, waste and consumerism. I decided that instead of shower gel that comes in ‘one use plastic’ we should make our own soap. I wrote a blog post titled ‘Blue Sky Goes Green’ and that is when I decided that I could sell my soap and other ‘green’ crafts to friends and family. Within the hour I had created a business logo, Instagram account and was researching rubber stamps and Blue Sky Crafts was born.
What helps you work?
Lots of coffee, relaxing music and enough time to just be left to work uninterrupted. A tidy house helps, so I don’t feel guilty for crafting instead of cleaning.
What is your workspace like?
I would love to have a craft room or a studio but we don’t have the space currently. At the moment I work in the dining room with my desk bureau to my right and all my craft supplies in labelled boxes on my left. I inherited the bureau from a great grandma who passed it to my grandma who passed it to my mum and then to me. It was dark mahogany and very serious looking so I sanded it down to a lovely oak finish and painted the fronts of the drawers and pull down desk, grey. I also changed all the drawer knobs for brightly coloured ceramic ones to give it a new lease of life! My desk chair was found in an Antiques warehouse and bought for just £8. It was varnished a sickly orange colour with a brown padded seat. I stripped it sown and painted certain parts duck egg blue with a heart on the top and changed the seat pad for beautiful mustard Orla Kiely fabric!
What do you love most about being a crafter?
I think being creative is just in my blood. My mum an incredible painter and I am lucky that I got that artistic drive from her. I love that when I craft and create something new, that it has the potential to bring joy to someone else or even inspire them. I would love to earn a living from being a crafter, hopefully somewhere along the line that might happen. For now I am lucky to have been able to tap into just having a small business and crafting to satisfy my own passions whilst creating gifts and items for purchase.
Music? If so who?
Folk, all the way. The sound of Mumford & Sons is usually all over our house through our Amazon Echo Dots. I am also a huge fan of Florence and the Machine. I have loved them since the first time I saw the Rabbit Heart video on YouTube in 2009. I went to see them in Blackpool Winter Gardens with my best Friend in 2010 and more recently in Glasgow with Alex last year. We also own a record player and I have inherited all my mums’ old records from her youth. We have started to add our own vinyl to the collection and have a Foo Fighters record that we share!
Your most memorable place & why?
York. A Summer evening cruising along the River Ouse listening to Jazz Music and drinking prosecco and being proposed to…for obvious reasons! Click here to read the story.
I hope you have enjoyed learning a little bit more about me for #MarchMeettheMaker
Love
Blue Sky
x
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