INSPIRE: The Road Less Travelled...Lynsey Searle

Hi I'm Lynsey from Swirlyarts and make things according to what materials I can salvage from charity shops, my local scrapstore and car boot fairs. I look for discarded and damaged things that would otherwise go to landfill and turn them into useful, beautiful items like envelopes, gift tags, notebooks, badges and chicken doorstops and pincushions. The products I make depends entirely on what materials I can rescue, which means that the majority of my products are unique - when they're gone, they're gone! I'm originally from Yorkshire, and work from my home studio just over the border in Lancashire where I now live with my husband and two small girls.

 

 

I'm a qualified primary school teacher and taught in Berkshire for a bit but we decided to move back up North as we missed it and our family. Once we'd bought our new house we decided that the time was right to have a baby! When A was about 10 months old, I tried to go back into teaching but there were 100+ people applying for each job and I just couldn't compete - I'd been teaching for two years so wasn't as cheap as a newly qualified teacher yet I didn't have a great deal of experience. I gave up after applying for about 40 jobs without getting anywhere!

 

It happened organically - luckily my husband has a good job so staying at home the the girls was an option for me and to be honest I'm glad we did it that way. My crafty life started when A was born we couldn't find any birth announcement cards we liked and my mother-in-law bought me some crafty bits and pieces so I could make my own. That led to a great interest in crafts and I started to experiment with lots of different crafts. Sewing struck a cord as did papercrafts! It has developed over the past 8 years and I'm pleased that I have had the chance to develop my creative business.

 

 

Well the easiest thing was how easily I 'fell into' the creative world and the hardest was making the decision to concentrate on Swirlyarts as a business. Purely in the fact that I work everyday (pretty much 7am until 10pm) and I worried about whether I would be able to balance work with family life. It works out though as I do things on the computer when the girls are around and concentrate on the making while they are at school!

 

My husband was (and still is) very supportive and the rest of the family have been as well. I still sometimes have to make it clear to people that I'm working at home and that doesn't mean that I can go to the shops or chat on the phone for hours! Although I do take time out to visit charity shops - to source materials of course :)

 

 

I enjoyed teaching but what I really like about my job now is that I can be there for my children when they need me. I do the school run and can easily take time out to go to concerts and sports days. The downside is that I now work harder than I ever did before and I never really switch off from work - there is always something I can do (I'm writing this at 9pm on a Saturday night - rock and roll!)

 

None whatsoever! I love my job and although bits of it can be repetative sometimes (drawing 200 chickens onto gift tags in one morning can get boring) I wouldn't change it for anything. Well maybe running my own secondhand bookshop with cafe and local crafts on display but that's never going to happen!

 

 

I love making things and would still do so even if I had a regular job - to get paid for it is a dream come true!

 

I'm an optimist by nature and think that things always work out but I would advise doing a bit of research first - where's best to sell etc. Then jump in with both feet - life is too short to have regrets! Oh and have a blog - it's a great way to get your products out there!

 

Optimistically, to have a chicken in every house in the world.  Realistically, to get my name out there in the world of quality, upcycled and handcrafted work and for people to associate Swirlyarts with all of those things.