Welcome, fellow gift givers and stationery addicts! Are you a ‘tell me the short version’ type or a ‘tell me the long version’ type? Well, let's hope it’s the latter, because this is a proper About page, not a two sentencer. You might want to get comfy…
I’ve been immensely lucky that my whole life has been an abundance of creativity and freedom to experiment with countless styles, concepts, materials and creative pathways. It's such a cliché but creativity is in my blood! My mothers great aunt, Dinah Green, was a children's book illustrator. My grandad was a furniture designer and principal of art & design college, Ravensbourne. My grandmother is an incredibly talented sculptor and portrait artist who also taught her magical skills to others in classes for years. My other grandmother was a baker, which isn’t a paint-on-paper type of creative, but still very creative nonetheless! My mother is a wonderful spinner of wool and all things fleece/flax and my dad is an interior designer.
No matter how many other hobbies and interests I've tried, I have always been instinctively pulled back to art and illustration and I have a sneaky suspicion that my genetic history plays a rather big part in this...
(Image - Me and my mummy!)
As a little girl, I found so much joy in making my friends and family intricately detailed greetings cards, all as unique as each other. I became quite the so-called 'stationery addict' by collecting hundreds of beautiful sheets of patterned paper, countless stickers, envelopes, glitter glue, pom-poms, magazine cut-outs and everything else under the sun! I would spend hours cutting out shapes, drawing little pictures or carefully adding text by hand, rubbing it out and rewriting again and again until it looked just right.
At the young age of 17, I started taking commissions alongside my education as a way of gaining some professional experience in the paid art world. My first commission as a teen was 6 illustrations for a brilliant children's book packed full of adventure called ‘The Cheery Gang’ by Andy Giles, which has just been published! Stay tuned for a link to the book soon. Fast forward 9 years - Oh how my style has changed! It’s wonderful to be able to look back and see how far things have come. As for my card making, it sadly phased out as I continued taking commissions all throughout college, and then managed to juggle even more of them throughout university to pay for what my student loan couldn’t cover when living in London. The commissions ranged from children's book illustrations and tattoo designs, to realistic, pencil drawings and logo designs. Each commission explored different styles and techniques which all played a significant part in the development of the quirky imagery I create today.
(Image - A commissioned artwork for a children's book. 2023)
After graduating with a First Class Honours in Illustration in 2021, I continued taking commissions alongside a part time admin job. In December 2022, I sat, cutting star shapes into four, large, starchy potatoes before dabbing them in white paint and pressing them onto sheets of coloured card. Once dried, I folded each sheet to create a set of matching Christmas cards ready to give my family and friends. Yes, they did indeed look like a 2 two year old had made them, but it’s the thought that counts, right…? Well, who knew that these four starchy potatoes would reignite my love for card making! So much so, that I would soon start my very own stationery business...
Bella & The Moon was born!
The first few months of Bella & The Moon consisted of lots of experimenting, mistakes and creating artworks using methods that didn't feel like they came from my heart. It still felt like I was creating imagery to suit other people. It took me some months before I found the perfect style for me and I finally landed on the multimedia process I use today.
So, how do I create my illustrations? Well, I sit comfortably at my desk with my favourite paint brushes, my colourful watercolour palette, a chonky bar of dark chocolate (my favourite snack to keep me going), and a substantial cup of tea (an absolute necessity!). I then let my imagination run wild and paint whatever comes to mind, simply seeing where my thoughts take me. The more odd the better! I then add pencil details to the designs before scanning them in and playing around with them on Procreate and Photoshop. (I can hear your sign of relief that the potatoes were just a one-time thing).
I also wanted my own font for my cards so I spent a year or so teaching myself modern calligraphy, and now all of my designs have a signature Bella & The Moon look!
So that my designs looked as artistic as possible, I spent months experimenting with different print companies before finding the most perfect, scrumptious card by the world renowned crème de la crème of all things paper - G.F Smith. Combined with my playful, multimedia techniques, quirky illustrations and energetic colour palette, I had created my very own, irresistibly textured collection of cards, prints and gift tags, so good you could eat them! (Please see above for disclaimer). What’s more is they look so bloomin beautiful, you’ll want to cherish them forever or frame them as quality art prints.
Many of my collections are largely inspired by silliness, my love for all things natural and the uplifting sensations of joy and happiness. My goal is to spark these feel-good experiences in my customers through vibrant colours, outrageous puns, and giving animals/characters some unusual, adult quirks! Have you seen the frog with a six pack and speedos? Or the seductive pig with a nipple piercing? How about the cow wearing platform pole-dancing heels, doing the splits? These are a few of the cards that have brought so many smiles and giggles to my lovely customers and knowing my products are doing exactly what I’ve designed them to do, brings a warm, fuzzy feeling to my heart.
