Young Tiffany - Choosing a Creative Job

When I was a child I was fairly sure I was going to be an artist. Definitely an artist! Or possibly a marine biologist. I still haven’t quite let go of the, swimming with dolphins in tropical waters, dream but the art thing seems to have stuck for now. I was quite good at art and always enjoyed it. I had no idea what type of artist I wanted be but I wouldn’t have guessed I would be making jewellery. I wasn’t a sparkly dressy little girl. I was a fairly tatty child who was always ripping holes in the knees of my trousers. So being a goldsmith still surprises me from time to time. I’m still not very glamorous and don’t always remember to wear my own jewellery on a night out but I still love it when I do and I love designing and making it even more.

I don’t remember when I made the decision to try and make money at making jewellery but it was sometime after having babies. My priority was being a Mum and I was happy to fit the rest in around the family. I never intended to go back to work as a chef but instead wanted to stay at home, grow veg, milk goats and enjoy my hobby of making jewellery if I got the chance. Somewhere between baking bread and pulling turnips, a plan began to take shape that as the kids grew, so would my business, which is what I started to think of the jewellery as. The longer the school days got, the longer my work days became too.

Nowadays work time is a bit more consuming both in my head and in work hours. Unfortunately that doesn’t always mean more making time, cause as we know there is more to selling than just making. This and the usual family joggling act along with working from home means creativity doesn’t always flow when you want it to and sometimes plain old procrastination takes over in the  windows of time you do find. That’s generally followed by big dollops of guilt which seem to bring about more procrastination. But more on that time consuming subject another day.

Running a creative business can be hard, it can be a struggle, there are dry months and totally mentally busy months. Nothing is certain. But I can’t imagine doing anything else. Maybe one day I will get bored of being a goldsmith. Maybe if I keep up the Duolingo I might become a Spanish translator or maybe time will turn me into Historian but for now I can’t get rid of the bug that has me in its grips.

Leave a reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *