At the beginning on the Covid-19 Pandemic I found myself unemployed from my job as a Geologist, worried about the future and what on earth I was going to do.
After many discussions with my husband and a lot of thought I decided to turn this unfortunate event in my life into something I had always wanted to do. I’ve always been a maker, a crafter, a hobbyist artist, and creative. A job in this field always seemed impossible but what better opportunity could I have to try this than now?
Last year was a year of revelation for many people around the world in many different ways, good and bad. I was fortunate to be able to find a way to turn the bad into the good in someway for myself. I chose to just start creating work that I had always enjoyed making, for the past few years I had been learning about and creating and selling Macrame as a small side hobby at local markets. But I always wanted to do something more with it, Create something bigger, grander, and more artistic with it. So, I dove headfirst into trying to achieve that by pushing my boundaries of what I knew the medium could do.
I found out about a virtual art show whose theme was centered around Enneagram numbers. After finishing the piece I noticed Etsy had a Design Awards competition that they started in 2019. I decided I would enter the piece that I created for this art show and just see what happened. I entered and forgot about it.
A few months later I got an email telling me that my piece had been selected as one of the finalists out of thousands of applicants for the art category. And shortly after that I discovered that I had actually been selected as the winner of the art category by Dayna Isom Johnson and Drew Barrymore!
It was a very surreal feeling given that half a year prior to this I had no idea what path I’d be taking in my life. That win became a foundation for my confidence in myself and my ability to create unique and meaningful art in a medium that was a different from the norm.
Since this win last fall there have been ups and downs, going from a cog in the wheel corporate environment to a sole-entrepreneurship is invigorating but it is also a little terrifying. You become your own boss, manager, accountant, marketer, HR rep, healthcare provider etc., all in a very short time.
But I know it’s not impossible there are many success stories out there! I believe that if I am driven by my desire to grow and learn and create work that charges my soul then I can make it into something important with a lot of hard work.