Resolutions for 2015

Happy New Year!

Have you made any resolutions or set any goals for the next 12 months?

This time last year, with redundancy looming, I resolved to start my own business.

After working for almost 13 years as a journalist, I wasn’t quite ready to leave the rat race altogether, despite the ‘allure’ of being a full-time mum.

My calligraphy skills lent themselves beautifully to setting up something I could do from home, working around my two young children and their routines.

It also meant I was no longer reliant on the grandparents for childcare.

I set up a lot earlier than I thought I would, initially saying to myself that if I had something in place by the end of 2014, I would be happy.

Creative Calligraphy launched in May 2014 and I have been involved in some exciting projects, contributing to artwork at Bede Metro Station in Jarrow and running workshops at Bede’s World in Jarrow and Ridgeway Primary Academy in South Shields.

My commissions have also been wide-ranging, from inscribing teapots, glass baubles and a Pagan ‘Book of Shadows’, to creating hand-made poetry books and writing wedding stationery.

I was supported in the first six months by the Government’s New Enterprise Allowance scheme.

That funding ran out at the end of November, so I’ll have to tighten the purse strings in 2015, which means being more selective about wedding fairs, advertising and so on.

But having ended 2014 on my busiest month for orders, my resolutions for the business in 2015 are to establish myself further and expand my knowledge of calligraphy so I can offer a wider variety of styles.