2025

The year that everything changed…. not to be dramatic but looking back it was a BIG year.

Back in January I told myself that I was going to push myself, really show up for my goals and see what can happen. But like many people I find my motivation is low, I’m still defrosting and so instead of pushing myself to create work when I’m not super invested- I decided to build my website.

I actually really enjoyed putting together my website, I am a girl with A LOT of prints, so it’s nice to see them all in one place.

So, the website was done and I was busy working on lots of lovely commissions which was a pleasure as I got to create some really special pieces from wedding invites, engagement mementos and new home paintings. The start of the year always feels a bit slow for me so I was grateful to have these to work on. After a successful 2024 I made the choice to drop an evening of swimming teaching work so I could have one dedicated studio day a week. Tuesday.

Tuesday in the studio was a real anchor for me this year, it was a day that I really showed up to and I kept myself accountable by doing a day in the life on Instagram, studio addition for a large part of the year. I know it is not about the number of followers but I managed to grow my Instagram to 900-3900 by the end of the year! Pretty cool.

One of the reels that helped grow my following so much was a step by step on how I made my ceramic mountains. These little mountains are one of my best sellers, I think I must have made hundreds. Whist painting is a bigger part of my practice I love ceramics, I find hand building a really calming and satisfying process. So I tried to diversify my products, I made keyrings, magnets, brooches, necklaces and ringholders. Not all of them were a big success but I think it’s always good to try.

One other product that completely changed my year was my mini Edinburgh riso prints, these actually came about by mistake and I am so glad they did. A couple of my stockists took a liking to them and have since sold so many of them!!

Growing the wholesale part of my business was a big push for me too, I love working with local Scottish independent shops and they allow my work to reach a much wider audience-so cool! So in 2025 I went from 3 to 8 stockists, which I am really pleased with this.

Looking back over the year it’s really crazy to me how much actually happened. So lets continue…

Being partially self-employed I realised quite early on that I was going to need more than one form of income stream to make a living from my art. So I am always on the hunt for a new way to share my skills. Markets are an obvious one, so I applied for new markets that I hadn’t done. Bigger market- the main one being the West End Fair. This market runs for a whole month but I just did a 3 day stint, my longest one yet. This was a big deal to me, a proper booth set up, Fringe footfall and I called in my parents to help. We hung artwork, put up shelves and I think it looked Fab. Markets are hard work, you’re ‘on’ all day but it paid off and I would do it again. Across the year I did 9 different markets.

Along the lines of diversifying income streams I had it on my list to run at least one workshop. So September rolled around and I launched my landscape collage workshop! Over summer I had really enjoyed collaging, inspired by my mum (no.1 Collage queen @lowritongcollages) I found it a really accessible, satisfying process.

I was super nervous, but it was wonderful. Truly wonderful, seeing what people created and how they interpret landscapes was super cool and I love the community feel that comes with running them. I wanted to create a pressure free environment, where you can play, be messy and just get to create for a few hours. I am fortunate to have a studio where I can do this whenever I want but I know many people don’t have the space and what nicer than getting to be messy and not have to tidy it up hey!

It was around this time off the back of a summer of good sales and a real belief that I can make it work I deciede to drop down a day at my support worker job. I was busy and I felt I needed an extra day in the studio to run the business. So as of October I had Tuesday and Wednesday in the studio and the rest of the week at work. It made a HUGE difference, I was able to experiment more and have time to build on ideas.

Right, we are nearly there. 2025 was the year of actively carrying my sketchbook about. I had brought my boyfriend Doug one too with the hope we would go and sketch together and we did! We drew in so many locations, I find sketching makes me slow down and feel more grounded in a place. We also moved in together, so now I have taken over the flat with prints, packaging but I think it could be the start of an exciting collab for 2026- he loves cooking, I love drawing….. say no more.

It’s hard to write it all down, but this year has been busy, so busy but I will always be grateful to be busy from a life I always dreamed of.

Here we come 2026!!