I've got my next little etsy shop owner chat for you..
Enjoy getting to know her...
1. Can you tell us a bit about you and your background...
I studied Decorative Arts in Nottingham, it was was a
mixed media course, covering everything form ceramics, paper, glass and
textiles so really great to work with lots of mediums.
In my final year I
specialised in printed textiles which opened up a whole new world for me.
After graduating i did a couple of placements and then in 2006 landed my first
design job, from here my career has been pretty diverse.
I have worked
In-house and on a freelance basis designing everything from cards and gift wrap
to accessories and home wares. I think its given me a really great grounding
for starting Paper Moon and Iv'e learnt it's a completely different experience
designing ranges for your own brand. Paper Moon really started as an outlet for
ideas I had whizzing around in my head and is something that has evolved
over the last year and a half, running a business involves a lot of learning
curves, some good some bad, but if you love what you do it makes it all worth
it!
2. What books/ magazines are currently on your coffee
table?
The shelf of our coffee table is a bit weighed down at
the moment with a mixture of recipe books and lots of photography books (my
boyfriends!) and a few editions of 'Pretty Nostalgic' and ''Frankie Magazine'
that I keep promising myself I'll find time to read sometime soon!
3. Tell us about a typical day for you…
I still design for a company in house so a normal day
can be quite busy and I often carry on late into the evening. When
working from home I can be processing and packing orders for Etsy and my
stockists, answering emails and working on any comissions that may have come
my way.
That's one of the things i love about having my own business everyday
is so varied and you never know what sort of email is going to pop in your
inbox. My favourite days are when I move away from the computer screen, which I
look at way to much and get some time to do some drawing or some some screen
printing.
4. What inspires you and who are your design heroes?
All sorts of things inspire me from designs blogs,
books and magazines to rummaging in second hand shops for inspiration,
generally just getting out and about seeing an exhibition and sometimes ideas
can be sparked form the most random things, for instance my 'Stacked Birds'
prints was inspired by a stone carving on a weekend away at the beach in
Sussex, you never know when the next idea for a print or a card will crop up.
My design heros - I have always loved the work
of mid century designers such as Lucienne Day and Stig Lindberg, the 1950's is
one of my favourite eras for design and I would say the a lot of my colour
palettes are inspired by that time. Illustration wise I also love the work of
Jon Klassen and Oliver Jeffers, I would love to illustrate a children's
book some day.
5. How did you decide on the name ‘Paper Moon’ for your
etsy shop?
For a long time I was very indecisive about a name for
the business/Etsy Shop, it had many different names before I settled on Paper
Moon. Paper Moon came about one sunday when my boyfriend was watching and old
balck and white movie, I asked him what he was watching and 'Paper Moon'
was his response, something clicked, it sound right and so Paper Moon it was!
6. What album is currently in your Stereo/iPod? And what
do you listen to while you work?
I listen to music all day everyday so Spotify has been
my saviour, some artists on my playlist right now - Santigold, Friends, Wild
Child and Peter and Kerry
7. What are your top three blogs?
It's a good mix of fashion/design/food and tutorials
UK
blog with tasty recipes,
places to eat in and around london and some craft
tutorials to top it off.
Because i'm a little bit obsessed with stationery!
Thanks so much to Nicola for sharing a little bit of her world with us!
You can find and follow Nicola here...
(all of the above images are taken from the Paper Moon etsy shop
and all copyright belongs to Nicola)
x x x
