Learning / Career
Illustrator & ceramicist Little Birdy
In a new career series looking at the occupations of those in our fine city, we find out the details behind the job titles. In our inaugural instalment, we meet Little Birdy, an illustrator and ceramicist from Totterdown
Please introduce yourself – name, occupation and location
Hello, I’m Little Birdy and I’m an illustrator and ceramicist living in leafy Totterdown.
Where can we find you working?
You can normally find me working at the lovely MAZE Ceramic Studios in Barton Hill, or in my craft nest at home, more often than not crafting into the wee hours.
Is it a messy occupation?
It can be! My smock is as important as any of my tools, which I learnt the hard way after twice getting covered in a pot of latex and glaze. I have regular ‘craft explosions ‘ at home when preparing for craft markets and seem to leave a trail of porcelain dust everywhere I go.
And how do you complete the very delicate details?
For illustration very, very fine nibbed pens and for ceramics a very, very sharp scalpel and a steady hand.
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You are inspired by colour, pattern, flora and fauna – what about these do you love?
As far back as I can remember I’ve loved bright colours and patterns that clashed in clothes and find it always makes me smile. The old adage ‘pink and green should never be seen’ is nonsense in my books. As for flora and fauna, I’m a huge lover of animals and I’ve become a keen gardener in the past few years, so it seemed natural to bring the colours and patterns from the garden onto the page.
Your characters are so animated and friendly, where do they come from? (your imagination/childhood/day to day life?)
Animals and anthropomorphised animals have always fascinated me. As a child the model animation of Wind in the Willows struck a chord with me, as did Gerald Durrell’s books. I think children find animals magical and mysterious and I guess I’ve never grown up, as I still do.
When did you first start working with porcelain? Have you always been interested in it?
I started working with clay at tertiary college many moons ago and despite never imagining I had any sculptural skills, working with the clay came very naturally to me much to my delight. So pretty much since then, I’ve kept my hand in by attending adult education classes and at studios wherever I’ve lived despite never specialising or studying it at higher education. I think clay is such a tactile and soothing medium to work with that most people who try it get hooked very easily.
Why Bishopston Badger, Totterdown Tawny Owl, Cotham Cockerel and the other animals for each area of Bristol?
Having never lived in a city before, when I moved to Bristol I was struck by the many different and interesting areas and what a strong identity each had. Which is the nature of cities I think, as they’re essentially a huge cluster of villages that have over the years attracted like minded people with similar tastes and attitudes. So in that respect it seemed very natural to highlight and celebrate the colourfuness and quirkiness of each area with a British creature as a mascot.
Any tips learnt from starting your own business?
Before you start, have a clear idea of what makes your work unique to you and research your potential market. I wish I’d done that when I started, as it would have saved me two years potentially. Use social media (even if like me, you’re an incompitent technophobe) or pay someone to show you how or do it for you. Faceboook, Twitter, Instagram are such profitable tools for promoting your work for free. Every opportunity that comes my way has been through social media. If you can, put every penny you earn back into the business to expand. Take the best photographs you can to show your products in the best light, literally and metaphorically. An excellent product I use when taking pictures is a collapsable mini studio called a Lightcase – the best £30 I’ve ever spent for my business.
Do you find there is a supportive creative Bristol community?
Yes definitely, I think Bristol is a very creative and supportive place to be as an artist. Theres so many outlets for work, collaboratives, pop-up shops events and groups outside of more traditional outlets like galleries and shops, run and organised by like minded creatives.
What’s the future for Little Birdy?
In the immeadite future I’ve got the Totterdown Art Trail coming up and also very excited to have been selected for the two day American craft market ‘Renegade’ in London on the 22nd and 23rd of November. I’ve also been working hard on some new illustrative cards and prints which will be out soon. Then it’s a mad dash stocking all the shops in the run up to christmas and a desperate attempt to stock my own online shop which has so far proved impossible. On the horizon is a very exciting collaboration with the super talented Bristol based felting artist Lizzie Pearce, and I’ll hopefully be expanding my porcelain jewellery and print work in the new year.
What makes you most proud and happy doing what you do?
Being able to be creative all the time makes me very happy and also meeting customers and hearing that my work made them smile. I think the thing that makes me most proud is never allowing myself to become complacent creatively and that I’m always pushing myself to come up with new ideas so that my work doesn’t stagnate.
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