MY CREATIVE JOURNEY
I absolutely love to create and make things and I will try anything creative at least once.
It has been a journey of many creative experiences to get me to where I am today.
I took great pleasure from a very young age in keeping myself entertained with my colouring book and crayons and I still have my first colouring-in book, which my Mom had kept for me. I could spend hours "teaching" my dolls and sometimes my sisters would oblige. Little did I know that years later, I would actually become a Nursery School Teacher or an Artist.
My Nanna taught me to knit, crochet, embroider and sew when I was 8 and I started sewing on her old Singer Machine with the treadle. She had so much patience and I was the only grand-daughter who was interested. Neither my Mom, nor my 2 sisters were remotely interested in needlework.
I also loved to write and had several Penpals in my teenage years and delighted in stamp collecting, which was the in-thing, back in the early 80's.
I had really wanted to become a teacher when I left school, but unfortunately, I was not able to attend Teacher College after I Matriculated. I went to study "Secretary of Tourism" of all things at the Cape Technicon. I went on to work for the South African Tourism Board for a few years. During this time I met my future husband on a blind date and on the 6th of April 2016, we celebrated our 25th Wedding Anniversary.
I had really wanted to become a teacher when I left school, but unfortunately, I was not able to attend Teacher College after I Matriculated. I went to study "Secretary of Tourism" of all things at the Cape Technicon. I went on to work for the South African Tourism Board for a few years. During this time I met my future husband on a blind date and on the 6th of April 2016, we celebrated our 25th Wedding Anniversary.
With my husband, being a pilot, we have moved several times, wherever the work has taken us. When we were newly married, I attended Mixed Media evening classes in Pretoria, South Africa after work. In our classes we created some of these:
I then started lessons at Sew & Simple in Johannesburg, South Africa and created many of my own clothes and my husbands tracksuits, absolutely hideous when you look back.... I was still yearning to become a teacher and decided that the only way I was going to do that was to study long-distance. I enrolled and within 2 years of intense studying, I qualified as a Nursery School Teacher. My dream to teach did not materialise as in 1993, I fell pregnant with my son and wanted to be a full-time Mom.
My Son was 2 when we moved back to the Cape where I assisted a friend in her home industry business, which is now a very big supplier of school uniforms in the Western Cape and she now has her own factory. It was then that I realised that there was a market for Maternity Wear as the maternity clothing were just awful and had no shape to them whatsoever. I went to night school and learnt pattern making and started my own little home industry, manufacturing Maternity Wear, called Mum2Be, which grew successfully.
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| Bunny Jewellery Holder for Daughter's Room |
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| Checker Sheep Board for Nursery Room |
I then started lessons at Sew & Simple in Johannesburg, South Africa and created many of my own clothes and my husbands tracksuits, absolutely hideous when you look back.... I was still yearning to become a teacher and decided that the only way I was going to do that was to study long-distance. I enrolled and within 2 years of intense studying, I qualified as a Nursery School Teacher. My dream to teach did not materialise as in 1993, I fell pregnant with my son and wanted to be a full-time Mom.
My Son was 2 when we moved back to the Cape where I assisted a friend in her home industry business, which is now a very big supplier of school uniforms in the Western Cape and she now has her own factory. It was then that I realised that there was a market for Maternity Wear as the maternity clothing were just awful and had no shape to them whatsoever. I went to night school and learnt pattern making and started my own little home industry, manufacturing Maternity Wear, called Mum2Be, which grew successfully.
I was able to continue with Mum2Be during several moves, and even when my daughter was born in 1999. Unfortunately, I was not able to move my business with me when we relocated to Mauritius in 2000 as I was not allowed to work there as my husband was the one with the work visa. However, saying that we were allowed to do Charity Work and Volunteer, so I volunteered at the Children’s school at the School Shop, where I learnt Pastel Accounting and attend the Corona Women's Group where I made many friends. Expat life there was fantastic.
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| Halloween |
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| Under The Sea Theme |
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| Nursery Rhymes |
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| Spirngtime at Nursery School |
In 2005 we relocated, again, this time to Abu Dhabi. This is where, I finally had the opportunity for my passion, which was to Teach. I loved teaching and was able to teach as a Nursery School Teacher for 5 years. Arts and Crafts was obviously my favourite teaching aspect and I looked forward to planning those lessons the most. The best was teaching kiddies how to paint, hold a pencil, cut with a scissors and watching them grow into very independent children who could write, build puzzles, throw a ball, climb the jungle gym, etc.
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| One of my First Drawings |
My cousin’s wife is an Artist and her work is just spectacular! She has many of her pieces at Hotels in Abu Dhabi and people kept asking her when she was going to give lessons. So when she started offering Art Classes in 2010, I decided that I wanted to broaden my Art skills to something a little more grown-up. It was the best decision, I undertook. I was in Heaven… This was just what I was hungry for and my love affair for Art was kindled.
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| Acrylic Painting on Canvas of Blouberg Beach |
In 2011, Our son had just completed High School in the UAE and was off to start Varsity in Cape Town and our daughter was just starting High School, in the Northern Hemisphere. I had the longing to return to the Cape and had itchy feet and needed to be closer to my sisters, brother, and especially my Nanna (both parents passed away many years ago). It was a tough decision to leave my DH (Darling Husband) behind, but he finally had a good job and had to remain in the UAE.
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| KraftyKidzWorkshop |
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| Kiddies attending Xmas Workshop |
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| Parenting Hub |
Then my sister-in-law and I found an opportunity to work together, and bought Parenting Hub. She is a qualified Graphic Designer and this worked for a year. We were able to share the work load and learnt much about marketing. We attended workshops and events, etc and grew our business. As we were not able to expand our business at that time, the work load became a bit much and as I had been commuting a lot to Abu Dhabi, we unfortunately had to sell the business.
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| Mixed Media on Board |
I started taking Art and Mixed Media classes, again to expand my art skills and improve my techniques. I like working with many different mediums and can become easily bored with just one medium, so I mix it up and explore new techniques. Working with Mixed Media has made me realise that it is ok to make mistakes and occasionally things do go wrong and that I do need the patience (like my Nanna) to accept that I don't know everything (yet). At least Mixed Media, is very forgiving. I also find that daylight is the best time to work on my projects.
Now, what to do? Not one for sitting around twiddling my thumbs, I started formulating ideas and The Art of Creativity Studio was born in October 2014. My Blog has given my creativity a voice and the teacher within, can share ideas and "How to" methods. My ideas started becoming a reality when I actually started doing! Starting with this Blog, and slowly building my brand as I learned new skills and techniques.
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| Nikon D3100 |
I like to go the extra mile and am a bit of a perfectionist (to my own detriment). My hubby always says that I like to create extra work for myself, which admittedly, I do, do. Not wanting to stop at creating The Art of Creativity Studio, I expanded my horizons even further and took a Photography course. I would highly recommend any creative person to pursue photography as it helps with that eye for detail, and of course helps to market your creative work.
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| "Steal Like an Artist" |
Facebook and Pinterest were the next steps, I took to develop my brand. And slowly, my desires to turn my obsessions into a business started to become a reality. Recently, I have joined Instagram and you can view many of my creations and my photography images on that platform.
I have read a book, twice, called: “Steal like an Artist: 10 Things Nobody Told you About Being Creative” by Austin Kleon, where he suggests that you take an idea and put your stamp on it, by developing the different ideas and creating it into something of your own, and share, of course!
Pinterest and Instagram are my constant source of inspiration, and I often think, “I can make that and develop it my style.”
I must say that I have been known to become quite excited when I visit an Arts and Crafts/Stationery Store as it lights a fire within me, even from a very young age and I can spend hours just looking around, but I can also spend a small fortune too. I find myself wanting all the tools of the trade (if only my budget and time would allow). I do, however have to realise that I cannot have everything and that at some point I have to start limiting my supplies, as I am finding that I am out-growing my studio and soon I will need my own Craft Store to store all my supplies.
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| Silhouette Cameo at work |
The Silhouette Cameo has, however become my latest tool, and boy are the possibilities just endless with this amazing product...! I have always enjoyed figuring out how things work and most often self-teach myself many of the skills I have acquired through the years. Of course, nowadays, we have YouTube tutorials which are always on-hand…. One can learn just about anything these days on the Net. My head is exploding with so many new ideas and creations.
Why is it that at school we are only taught, Academics or Sports and that there is very little room for Creative minded students? How sad is that? We need creatives in this world, to make it more beautiful. Well, now is the time to embrace my creativity and share it with the world (literally). I want to stop making excuses as I have doubted my abilities for so long now that I don't want to hide behind them, anymore. I have the flexibility of my job, and yes, it is a job! I am my own boss, I have creative control over my own projects and at least my creativity can’t be stifled, I am in charge of my own destiny. The nice thing about having a flexible schedule is that I still have time to catch-up with Family and Friends over a coffee or lunch/dinner. "Fortunately", for my creativity, my hubby is away most of the time, my son is away at Varsity and has left home and my daughter is in her last year of High School. I like to start the day with a clean slate, which entails a walk on the beach with my dog, as my constant companion, and most chores done as this clears my head for the day ahead in The Art of Creativity Studio.
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| Unique Handmade Cards will also be part of the Stock |
My “Top Secret” dream is to start selling my products before I move, again... back to Abu Dhabi mid 2017, on an online store, probably Etsy, so that my creations can be accessible to the whole world. I am currently investigating different options and working on building up my product stock, Unique Handmade Treasures for your Pleasure with Love by The Art of Creativity Studio xxx
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| My Motto |
I Love what I do and it rewards me with such a sense of accomplishment.
