Who am I, and what is this?

Read on to find out about my new business venture, and how I almost gave my business a rude name!

Welcome to my new site! I hope you find something useful, entertaining, or to buy!

So who am I? My name is Claire and I now live in Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire, UK, with my husband and our cats.

In a previous life I was editor of an inhouse magazine and newspaper for a consumer rights organisation before leaving to live in Japan.

My husband has worked for the same Japanese company for about 20 years, and it was his work secondment that took us out there for almost two years.

I have another business – CMTPDesign which was a mish-mash of different ideas when I started it (I have a lot of passions!) – including photography. I then realised I needed to focus on one element so that business focused on handmade leather pieces and millinery and photography were shelved for a period of time. Well now its time to share my pictures with the world!

Initially I had just sold photos, but now I realise there’s a whole plethora of possibilities out there and I need to think bigger not smaller!

That lead me to print on demand (POD) through Printify. This way I’m able to offer pieces to hang on your wall, through posters and canvas prints, but am also able to display my items on a range of products, including bags, t-shirts, and notebooks…and so on.

I’m also building on my artistic skills, and design knowledge to learn digital illustration – I hope to use this in the future to turn some of my photos into illustrations (posters, tees, etc).

For example, I have a lovely picture of sunlight flooding through autumnal trees onto a little girl in a stunning kimono and obi, with kanzashi in her hair. It’s a bit of an accidental picture, as I was taking shots of the trees and crowds on Mt Takeo, and there she was in amongst the crowd, with this natural spotlight. However I don’t feel comfortable sharing (or selling!) this image of someone else’s child. I also have a lot of images I took on my phone when the DSLR had run out of battery or I’d left it at home. Both of these instances would make for useful stepping stones to a beautiful illustration. Watch this space!

So I set up my Etsy shop…

On 23rd June I finally nailed down a name, after a disastrous first run at it (I managed to make a name that, in a hashtag, looked like innuendo!). After I was registered I set about ordering samples of the things I wanted to sell.

I’m glad I did – that way I was able to see how things would look in real life, and correct any mistakes I’d made while figuring out the design program.

So now here I am – it’s two months on and I’m busy trying to get loads of listings up on to Etsy. I’m really proud of the pieces I have up so far, and have loads more to add – hopefully there will be something there you’ll like. Conversely, if there’s something there that you sort of like, but it’s not quite right, get in touch! I’m happy to discuss custom orders.

Below is a selection of some of my pieces – click on the image to go to the listing.