Ever since I can remember, I’ve dreamt of starting my own little venture. From selling painted stones outside my house at the age of eight to setting up a beauty salon in my bedroom and charging my mum 50p for a manicure, I was always creating something.
This entrepreneurial streak followed me to university, where I began sketching portraits of celebrities and was amazed when someone actually bought one! That desire to create something of my own simmered down for a while as I somehow graduated with a maths degree and joined the 9-to-5 world as a web developer. Then, a colleague suggested we build a game together, and I found myself buzzing with ideas again—naturally, all revolving around art. But, like the ventures before it, this too amounted to nothing. They all lacked… something.
More recently, I discovered a love for sewing, which reignited my passion for creating something meaningful. I dreamed up countless business ideas centred around textiles, completed a fashion course, and brainstormed endlessly, but none of them felt quite right. Eventually, I became disheartened, stepped back, and went offline. I got a motorhome and spent a year immersing myself in nature, rekindling old hobbies like art.
I’ve always loved art, and sometimes I wonder if I should’ve pursued further education in that direction instead of maths. Then again, who’s to say? Perhaps formal study would’ve killed my love for it altogether.
During my adventures, I picked up a book on nature journaling. It suggested trying watercolours, so I gave them a go—even though I’d primarily worked with gouache at school. Painting with a brush again, on physical paper, felt so freeing!
This led to the idea of combining watercolours with machine embroidery. The results were beautiful, but something still felt missing. Then I remembered freehand machine embroidery—something I’d tried only twice when I first started sewing.
The first time I tried it, I loved it because it combined two of my passions: drawing, which I’ve always adored, and sewing, which was my newfound love back then. But, caught up in the excitement of sewing, I focused on dressmaking instead. I even became pretty good at it—if I can say that myself! (Feel free to check out my personal Instagram to see some of my old makes. [Linked here]) I pursued dressmaking further, attending weekend courses at the British Academy of Fashion Design, which I loved. Unfortunately, caught between the pandemic and the pressure of assignments, my passion for dressmaking began to wane. That’s when I stepped back from social media and took a break from it all.
And that’s when everything changed. Wild Minder emerged from that time away, reigniting a fire in me like nothing else. It combines my love for creativity, nature, and textiles into something truly meaningful. It feels like everything I’ve done, from those painted stones to my dressmaking and adventures in nature, has brought me to this point. View the Wild Minder Gallery here