The Truth About The Wedding Business - PART 1

If I had listened to my business adviser, when I first started all those years ago, I would be where I am now.... only I would have got there quicker!

As many of you know, I've been a Calligrapher and Lettering Artist since 1988. My work has been wide and varied. Some jobs you want to do, others were quite frankly a pain in the bum. Each had it's own merits and challenges.

Professional, qualified, Calligraphers are getting pretty thin on the ground. We are becoming a specialised industry. While there are still plenty of Calligraphy Groups around, they are more 'interest' groups rather than anyone wanting to take on work and use their skills.

I live in North Yorkshire. The county is wide and spread out. Fewer people even know what a Calligrapher does these days, never mind needing their services and the ones that do are pretty reluctant to pay a decent hourly rate for the work involved.

"Surely, you just pick up a fancy pan,

 filled with ink and write, don't you?"

I wish it was that simple. The 'in' joke amongst Calligraphers is that you can become a brain surgeon in less time! And actually, it's not too far from the truth!

I remember, when John, my business adviser with Action For Blind People suggested I specialise in Wedding Stationery, I laughed! At the time I was lucky enough if I did 1 or 2 wedding orders a year. The thought of ditching all the other work, in it various guises, made my stomach churn. I just about made enough to keep the doors open at the studio. To ditch the small amount of work that was coming through seems nothing close to madness!

I resisted.... well, I actually, didn't resist fully, I made more of an effort as far as I was concerned, made up some Wedding Invitation portfolios and got them into shops.... the business didn't come my way and I continued to take on small jobs, which took a great deal of time and effort, but had very little reward.

I did this for a further 3 years. I did it till I could take no more. I felt the life was sucked out of me and this also coincided with the break-up of what I thought at the time was a 'perfect' relationship (Please excuse me here,while I laugh my stripy socks off!).

For the following year I took stock of not only my life, my relationship (and the no good for me characters, I seemed to attract!) but my business and my feeling towards that too. I'm a big believer in "If you always do, what you've always done, you'll always get, what you've always gotten!". Things had to change... I had to change! My attitude and my fears regarding my work had to change.... and change it did!

This wasn't over night... it was a long journey and there's lots to tell.... so I'll write more about this in another post...

I have things I need to 'get off my chest' and most of all, I hope my story, in time will give hope, inspiration and motivation to others. 

Open Heart Surgery!

I want to dispel some myths here.....I'm sure when you tell people you are an artist they conj our up images of a well organised, tidy and productive workspace, where the creator is more likely to be seen eating humus on freshly baked bread, that she herself has baked that morning and drinking coffee and taking time out to walk through the meadows in long floaty skirts and listen to the songs of the birds and nature all day long, whose house is immaculate and there's not a speck of dust to be seen and the garden is to die for..........

Hmmmm well possibly in fantasy fairy land they might.

Now, here's the real shocker....now are you sitting down and bracing yourself for this?
The truth of the matter is.....
we would rather be making a mess than cleaning it,
housework is a dirty word.....well I suppose there is a limit and we do get round to it eventually,
many of us work with a scatter gun approach....it's where our ideas turn into reality.

Actually....looking at this picture you may just believe the first bit was true....




Errrr....this is actually my drawing board on the left and straight ahead are my many means of colouring paper and canvas. From gouache and watercolour, to pastels and paints....It's surprising I can find anything here!



And from this direction it doesn't look too bad either....except in the foreground is my work bench....which piles high with paper until an avalanche forces me to clear it!

Oh,,,,,and one of2 printer areas.....again piled with paper....

And this doesn't look bad either....providing you don't enlarge the picture.....

Hmmmm.... more pens, paint and ink......

And the middle island work area.....

Second drawing board which my son lovingly refers to as 'The Extra Shelf!'

Ahhhhh how tidy is this? It's my idea and quotation files.....

And here's my scissor and cutting area

Rubber stamps, ink pads, tapes and beads.....Oh yes.....and an iron.....don't even ask me why I have an iron at the studio, I hardly iron anything at home never mind work!

I will admit that the house and garden aren't quite as bad as the studio, the garden especially is looking good.....but that's because it's that time of the year and we creators would rather be out in the garden that cleaning the house :o)

The Gallery part is however organised, but that's only since being joined by Steve Smith and his Jewellery......it honestly didn't look that bad until you show someone else it. I'm sure you know the feeling? You know, the one that doesn't mind showing anyone round the house but for gawd sake, don't let them look under the bed!


All in all, I think we are wonderful, working in chaos can lead to wonderful discoveries. A pile of overlapping papers can draw your eyes and make you see something you never saw before. We forgive ourselves for not having a perfect house, a perfect workspace, or being the perfect housewife or host....at the end of the day, life is just too short....and I and many others would rather leave behind something that we have created rather than a tidy place......and all in all, it's where the 'Magic' happens!


OK....I'm off to have that coffee and humus on freshly baked bread, before I go to listen to the birdsong, and wander the fields in my long floaty skirt.........