MARCH 2020
I have been drawing/colouring/painting since I was little and I have never doubted that this is what I was good at and this is what I wanted to do (except for that one time I apparently said I wanted to be a tennis player think my mum made that up!)
From art GCSE, I went on to art and graphic design at college, art foundation and eventually studied Graphic design at NTU. I left uni determined to be a children’s book illustrator, I moved home for a year – I’m from a little town called Grimsby – and got a job in @waterstonesgy – I didn’t know at the time but this is when my journey truly began.
I started drawing on the chalk boards in store, creating the promotions for events and upcoming book releases; about a year later I moved to Manchester and transferred to @waterstonesarndale and they embraced this talent as well. I still didn’t know chalk boards could lead to anything at this time and at some point, I gave up on the book illustrator dream…
In 2018 I was kind of lost, I couldn’t afford to stay at Waterstones and ended up getting a job in marketing. I quickly realised this wasn’t the job for me, but I wasn’t really sure what to do. I had set up a page for my chalkboard work when I was at Waterstones and I began to get a few enquiries; I started to think maybe I could do something with this… but it wasn’t until I was invited to the @madeinbury Business Academy (a course for start-up business’) that things truly changed.
It quickly became apparent that I couldn’t stay at my job and do the course, so long story short: I quit. This was honestly the best decision I’ve ever made, and I fully launched Happy Chalk as a business in April 2019! I got a part time job to help with the rent, but I can happily say it’s going really well – I am officially a chalkboard and window artist! Over the next year or so, I hope to turn Happy Chalk into a full-time venture, and never have to work for anyone else ever again!