about
My creative journey began in 1979 when I first started nursery. From the very first day, I planted myself firmly in front of the easel and could not be moved. In 1984, obsessed with the British cartoon Danger Mouse, I started to draw all the characters in my sketchbook. In 1985, Queen's 'A Kind Of Magic' album was released and the cartoon of the four band members on the cover inspired me to paint my first and only mural on my bedroom wall - with the permission of my parents of course.
In a strange twist, I wasn't allowed to take art as a subject at high school because it clashed with sciences and all my teachers insisted that there was no money to be made in art anyway - they weren't wrong! I sneaked into a vaguely artistic class called Design and Communication and spent my final three years designing logos, furniture and tools.
After graduating school in 1990, I chose to go to art school, but as I didn't have a portfolio filled with fine art, I chose Graphic Design as my future career. I spent four years learning how to do pen and ink layouts, getting high on fumes a room full of Magic Markers and glueing photocopied images onto posters. Needless to say, the course was woefully outdated and when I attended my first job interview after graduating, my lack of computer experience was a issue. I was promised a 'trainee' job as a designer but I first had to 'learn the ropes' downstairs in the basement folding paper and packing boxes.
After 8 long weeks of being stuck in a windowless basement, packing boxes and glueing presentation folders all day, I was still no closer to being allowed upstairs to the office to learn how to use a computer. Perhaps in hindsight, I was a little impulsive - even at that age - so when I was fobbed off by the manager again, I quit. If I'm being completely honest, I didn't really want to work in a high pressure, fast paced design studio anyway, it was only because I'd spent (wasted) four years at college that I felt like I had to at least do something with my qualification.
I didn't like the idea of getting stuck in a similar job due to my lack of computer experience and I desperately wanted to be a designer or an artist, so I decided to start my own illustration business. The idea of working alone, with no boss definitely appealed. I pinned some posters in various local shops offering pencil portraits and waited for the enquiries to come flooding in. I got a few commissions and one strange enquiry from a fellow dressed like Michael Jackson who asked me to illustrate an embroidered patch for an exhibition of Michaels iconic fashion. That was the first of many weird and wonderful projects I worked on over the years.
I realised that to make any money I needed a computer, a printer and to learn how to use industry standard design software. Word of my desire to save up for a computer - with no income - found a friend of the family who very generously offered to lend me the money to set myself up with all the equipment I needed. I bought a brand new Apple Mac Performer 6200, a black and white laser printer, a Syquest storage drive and actual real genuine copies of Adobe Photoshop, Macromedia Freehand and QuarkXpress. Over the next few weeks I learned enough to design myself a business card and letterhead and drove down to a small printing company just down the road to get them printed so I could start handing them around to hopefully get some work.
When I went to collect my business cards and letterheads, the owner of the print shop asked if I was available to take on any freelance work because they only had one in house designer and he was rushed off his feet. I had very little experience on the software still, but I said yes and took home a test job so they could assess my design skills. I spent the whole weekend reading through the manuals for all the software so I could learn what I needed to complete the letter head design they'd given me. After that crash course, I managed to complete the job and took it down on Monday morning to be approved. I worked freelance for that company for the next 20 years.
Photography
I've been passionate about photography since I was a kid. My Dad was a keen photographer, shooting black and white and developing his own prints and I used to excitedly sit with him in his makeshift darkroom in the attic with the strong acidic smells of all the chemicals. When I was 11 I was gifted a brand new Ricoh KR10x SLR film camera with 50mm and 28mm lenses for my birthday and I snapped photos whenever I saved up enough pocket money for fresh films. I still have that camera and I really should replace the battery, get some black and white film and start shooting the old fashioned way again.
In 1997 I bought my first digital camera - a Kodak DC240i in Blueberry. Released from the expense of buying and developing film, I carried that massive lump of a camera everywhere and took photos of anything which grabbed my attention. I developed an interest in shooting photos of rusty metal, peeling paint and broken machinery in the old mill where my band rehearsed. That interest has continued to this day and has facilitated my digital abstract artwork creation.
In 2007, seemingly all at once, all my major design contracts dried up and I was left high and dry with no income. By this time I'd upgraded my 0.8 Megapixel Kodak to a Nikon D70s DSLR and had been taking photos to use in the various publications and leaflets I'd been designing for clients for a few years so I decided to lean into photography as a business of its own.
Fortuitously, I was approached by one of my old band mates to shoot the cover art for his new band's new album around this time. That job required a model - which they provided in the form of a friend who agreed to be photographed in a red evening dress, sat in the woods and have her head digitally removed from her body in the final image.
That first model shoot generated a lot of interest and led to a complete change of creative direction. Enquiries for similar weird and wonderful shoots began flooding in. It was much more fun to wander around derelict buildings and cemeteries than sit in an office designing menus and leaflets so I grabbed the opportunity and Black Orchard Photography was born.
Black Orchard Photography was active for about 4 years until the demand for alternative fashion photographers waned due to the new affordability of digital cameras and the proliferation of 'friends with cameras' who offered free shoots to their friends. It was no longer financially viable to continue full time so not for the first time, I pivoted to another way to make my living.
Crafts
In 2011, with not enough design work or photography work to pay the bills, I decided to start a craft based business from home. I'd always loved books and my fascination with how they were traditionally made led to me buying a book on the techniques and learning how to do it myself. I made a leather bound book over a couple of days and posted photos of it on my social media just to see what my friends thought of my efforts. By the next day I'd had multiple enquiries from random people I'd never spoken to, asking if I could make them one too. I grabbed that opportunity with both hands, bought a bunch of tools and build myself a bookbinding stitching frame from a lump of board and a couple of old barbells and within a couple of weeks, Black Orchard Books was born.
It didn't take very long for me to have a nice long list of orders - not quite enough to cover my living costs, but it was encouraging. I'd been working with scraps of upholstery leather sourced from my local fabric shop but it had its limitations with detail for he books I was making so I began researching again and discovered vegetable tanned leather which could be carved and stamped. Cue another order of various tools and a hide of veg tan leather and I spent a day or two learning how to carve my own detailed designs into the leather for a book cover.
Again I posted the image of my carved leatherwork and within an hour someone messaged to ask if I could make wallets. I had no idea how to make a wallet but still with a healthy amount of youthful exuberance, I said yes, took his order and spent the next few days learning how to build a wallet, hand stitch and dye the leather. My customer was very happy with his wallet so I posted a photo of it on my social media and the was officially when Black Orchard Leather was born.
I spent the next 14 years creating leather bound books, satchels, handbags, wallets, belts, guitar straps and even rifle straps and gun holsters - I made many more random items too, too many to list. I supplemented my craft business with occasional photography or design jobs but my full time job was working with leather. I did quite a few side quests along the way - as is the tendency for people with ADHD - including stained glass art, woodturning, metal sculptures and pyrography, but none of them generated enough income to incorporate fully into my business. They were all immense fun though and will make a return one day without any doubt.
Art & Design again
Everything was going rather well, with Christmas of 2019 being my busiest period to date. I'd just invested in a massive industrial sewing machine and bell skiver so that I could expand the business and make a range of belts, guitar straps and dog collars - then March 2020 arrived and the pandemic destroyed my craft business overnight.
The pandemic hit me particularly badly. I was in real mess until the end of 2022 as my mental health struggles became my biggest challenge and the business had to be put on the back burner. By the time I'd recovered enough to relaunch my leatherwork business, social media had totally forgotten about me and I found it impossible to gain any traction. I tried really hard, even renting a commercial studio to hold all of my new equipment and spending every waking hour either making leather goods or promoting them on my socials, but I was still only 60% recovered and burned out hard again.
In the middle of 2025, after closing my studio and putting all of my leatherworking equipment into storage, I went back to my roots and started to focus on my art, photography and graphic design again. In the last year I've built up a fresh portfolio of digital abstract artworks, mixed media art and a collection of surface pattern designs.
I don't think I'll ever return to crafts as a full time business but I definitely intend to return to them as hobbies when I can facilitate a place to live with space to spread them all out. For now, I'm having fun working from a small table in my spare room, happily creating art, both on my computer and with acrylic paints. I'm putting most of my time into designing surface patterns on my ipad with the aim to make that my most successful creative venture yet.