Today we have our first interview on the blog. We are sharing our tea and biscuits with a talented and creative artist which I absolutely adore her work. I was so honored when Rebecca Kemp and her Emporium of little awesome creatures accepted my invitation to join me in a chat so we all can discover a bit more about them.
Who is Rebecca Kemp? Tell us a bit about yourself.
My name’s Rebecca
from Rebecca’s Emporium. I started up my little Emporium early in
2011 and have never looked back since!
I still work full time
with my parents, helping them out with their truck and trailer parts
business, but I spend my lunch breaks and evening plotting and
planning new felty characters to unleash on the world!
What keeps you motivated?
Keeping myself
motivated is one of those things that I don’t realise I need to
keep an eye on until I find myself leaving jobs until tomorrow. I
find keeping things fresh really helps! Re-arranging my work space,
buying some new materials to work with or just dedicating an entire
day to researching new artists and techniques works a treat. Even
just spending a good few hours doodling something random helps kick
start the imagination. Always try something new! It’s easy to
settle into a routine, but I try to shake that up whenever I can.
Describe your work setting.
My work setting at the
moment is a bit up in the air to be honest. I’ve recently moved
house and we’re now expecting a new, tiny member to our family!
(Yeey!) But I have a desk which has to be by a window. My laptop’s
always nearby so I can have endless episodes of Poirot and Miss
Marple on loop, and just little things to catch my eye. I find that
my best characters come to life when I’ve been a bit distracted by
a bead in a pot on my desk that I think will work wonders as a belly
button or eye!
How is your creative process?
My creative process
differs a lot of the time. Quite often, I will sit with a ball of
felt and just ‘go for it’. I love not really knowing where the
felt and my needles are going to take me. I’ll have a rough idea of
colours that I want to use and then suddenly this little character
will start emerging and then I get a real idea of who he/she is and
then things start getting interesting! So many Pheeples have been
born that way. Other times, especially with jewellery pieces, I find
myself inspired by people around me, the hustle and bustle and the
things that people miss. I love creating pieces that are fun and
interesting. Pieces that will cause you to look a second time and not
just pass it off as something normal and every day. Making the little
things in life fun!
Wich one of your creations do/did you most enjoy making?
What a question! Which
one of my creations did I most enjoy making?
Umm, gosh, that’s a hard one. Each little character feels like a
little part of me, I feel quite mean choosing one above the others!
It’s a tie I’d say between my monster Pheeples – I utterly
adore making crazy little monsters with the freedom to give them as
many eyes and noses as I want! And the Granny Pheeple custom order
sculpture I made. She had a lovely pink arm chair and a little plate
of Jammy Dodgers too, her favourite! She was such a joy to make, and
quite a challenge too. I’d never made a felt arm chair before!
Tell
us the ups and downs of having your own handmade business?
Having your own
business is definitely a bit of a rollercoaster! Especially seeing as
I’m working a full time job too. It’s very much a case of having
to allocate time for different things. If I had it my way, I would
just felt all day and night long! But then there’s the online side
and promoting your work so that people see what you’re up to.
There’s also the paper work side of things – don’t talk to me
about tax forms! But also I’m finding, especially with our family
growing, that you need to be able to fit in family time too. It’s a
tricky little juggling act.
Why
buy handmade?
Handmade is SO
important! Despite the fact that it’s actually become quite
fashionable now, I do think that buying from people who literally
love every piece that they make is so worthwhile. I see big companies
trying to recreate the ‘handmade look’ with tags saying ‘made
in China’ or somewhere, and they just don’t have the same quality
as a truly handmade piece. As well as helping the hard workers and
small businesses that are trying to make it in the big wide world, I
just personally feel that these are the people that deserve my money.
I would pay extra to know that the piece that I hold in my hands was
made in someone’s house/studio, with love and attention to every
design and detail of making. It’s much more soul satisfying that
putting money in the pocket of someone who doesn’t really care
about their product or who buys it.
What
is your favourite inspirational quote?
My favourite
inspirational quote has been stuck in my head since my GCSE’s in
secondary school.
I have no idea of who
it came from, but scratched into my desk by someone from years before
me was this wonderfully inspiring phrase:
“Face your fears and
live your dreams”
And it’s stuck. Every
time I get a bit frightened of what a big decision could mean for me
and my work, this phrase pops into my head, and I go for it. No
looking back. In fact, it might even be down this doodle on a desk
that Rebecca’s Emporium went from being a dream to reality.
Future plans for Rebecca's
Emporium?
I would love to take
Rebecca’s Emporium further and further! My ultimate dream of course
is for my ‘on the side’ felting career to become my full time
felting career. I hope to be able to get my own studio one day for
all of my felt work to thrive in and to be sold in shops as well as
online. There’s a lot in the pipeline for Rebecca’s Emporium.
Admittedly I will probably have to take a step back for a bit when
the baby is born and I’ve got to learn to be a mother, but once
we’ve settled, things will kick off again, and hey, in the future I
might have a little helper working with me in my studio!
Your
favourites:
Artist:
Has to be Louise Bourgeois. Her work just grabs me and won’t let me
go. The contrast of materials that she uses, the shapes and the power
of them! There are lots of artists that I admire and feel inspired
by, but I could easily get lost admiring her work.
Creative
Skill: Drawing is most definitely my favourite creative skill. I
think without it, the world would be an entirely different place, and
I would be a completely different person. Whether it’s a piece of
chalk on the wall or paint brushes on a canvas, there’s something
so therapeutic about it, it’s as if it’s essential for survival.
Book: Has
always been the Hobbit. When I was in primary school, our head
teacher read us chapters on a school trip that we went on, and it
stirs so many memories for me. He never finished the story so I got
my own book, read it all the way through and scooted onto The Lord Of
The Rings, but the Hobbit has always been my favourite adventure.
Thank you
so much for this wonderful chance to tell you a little bit about my
world!
