SPEAKER_01 0:08

What happens when you turn to making things with your hands in the wake of a loss? And it accidentally becomes both a business and the thing you were always meant to do. In today's episode of Mothers of Creativity, I'm talking to Nick Britton, a makeup artist whose work has appeared in the pages of British Code, FD How to Spend It, and her extensive client list includes Too Good, Nest Porter, and Fierucci. Nick has gone on to become a textile artist, known for her block printer designs called straight from an 80s and 90s childhood, and for her charming and relatable Instagram account that allows her followers an insight into her craft. Nick touches on losing her mother, the COVID years that changed the fashion industry, and how picking up a line of block and some paint became the first time she'd ever created something with no one else's opinion in the room. We talk about the moment a mentor forced her to decide whether this was a real business or a nice side hustle. What it cost to build something cost raising two kids with no family nearby to help, and why she thinks not being trained in textiles is exactly what's made her work so successful. I'm Sabrina Starl, and welcome to Mothers of Creativity. Um, because I first met you when you're a makeup artist doing amazing work for British Vogue, FT, How to Spend It. And now you're a textiles artist. And I feel like, especially with how you are on Instagram with your two camera pieces, which I love and I'm obsessed with, and you do them so well and in so not a cheesy way. Um yeah, I just I'm like, how do you want to be known as makeup artists, textile artists? Like, how do you describe to people what you do when they ask?

SPEAKER_00 2:25

Hello. Uh it's lovely to be here. Um, how do I feel? How do I want to be? Oh gosh. I find that a tricky one. I I don't really like either name, to be fair. Not because I don't like being a makeup artist or a textiles artist. I think these days, and I feel on set when I meet other creatives, that everyone has something else going on, and it's a different world where there are lots of um issues and problems coming to light in the world, and everyone's kind of trying to find their feet. So I don't know what I'm I feel like I'm in in a community of people all doing this type of thing, and I don't know what we're called. But yeah, I'd say a textiles artist is probably my favourite name out of all of the three of them.

SPEAKER_01 3:14

Okay, textiles artists, and like I guess that's you've been on quite a journey to get to being a textiles artist. If we um, you know, you talk about mentioning being on set, if we kind of like pick up the story as a makeup artist, what was it that inspired you and wanted you to get into makeup in the first place?

SPEAKER_00 3:39

Um I wanted to be an actress when I was about, I don't know, eight, or for many a lot of my childhood. And I went to lots of drama schools, but I'm dyslexic. And so my parents wouldn't let me go to drama school. They were like, you can't split, you know, at drama school you split half your week into normal school and the other half is drama school. And they were like, you can't do normal amount of work in a normal week. So no. So every weekend I'd be at um all the weekends, you know, drama clubs. And um one week, looking back, I've realized that one week some somebody obviously was has had a hangover or was, you know, couldn't come in. So they got their mate, a makeup artist, to come in, and she came in and taught us all how to do like bullet wounds and like cut wrists and things like that. And I was just like, this is amazing. Um, and from that point on, I was always quite, I can't say that was the that day I decided I want to be a makeup artist, but I was always like, God, that is super cool. Like, no one, especially in the 90s, I don't feel like when you were watching your like Janet Jackson video, somebody wasn't sitting, your parents weren't going, someone built that set, someone taught them that dance, somebody did their makeup. Like, no one explains that to you. And suddenly I was like, Oh, wait there, this is cool. So I um carried on going to university and stuff, but still had this in the back of my head. And then by the time I decided to pay the money and train, which is um quite a lot of money to let to learn that type of thing, I decided to go into the fashion industry instead of instead of into film, even though I'd learnt how to like do bullet holes. Um and actually looking back, I mean, I could have easily done either, and I think I'm actually more of a film girl in my being. I'm more of a tomboy who would happily spend you know the whole day with some random bits of plasticine trying to turn it into a guts or something.

SPEAKER_01 5:27

But but the fashion the fashion industry lured you in.

SPEAKER_00 5:31

It did, it did, it suckered me in. So um, so there we go, and that's how I got into fashion.

SPEAKER_01 5:35

Okay, so yeah, you got into fashion. And did you take the like traditional rue of assisting or you went straight into finding your own clients?

SPEAKER_00 5:44

I I mean a bit of both. I was working um on my own before I had any assisting jobs, and then I got a job. Um, and then one random day, one morning I woke up and looked at my Twitter. I don't even have Twitter, it seems wild that I say that. And um, my absolutely favourite makeup artist of all time, called Alex Box, had put up a post within minutes of me looking saying, I'm looking for someone to help me uh archive my past work. Um, is anyone interested? And I was like, this is it, this is my in. So I replied to her on there. I think I must have replied to her via the email she'd given. And then I also knew at the time she was being represented by a PR firm because she'd just left her agency. So I emailed them, and then by you know, the universe, I don't know, whatever you want to call it, magic, she didn't know what to do with all the replies. So went to her PR people and was like, how do I choose? And they said, Well, this girl emailed us too, and so that's how I got that. So I ended up helping her archive her work for like a week, and then I ended up being her first assistant after that.

SPEAKER_01 6:49

Amazing, like what an experience, and also just goes to show like just attack from all sides. If you want something, just really go for it. And so you were assisting her, and what did that look like?

SPEAKER_00 7:04

She her, to be fair, in in the most beautiful way possible, she ruined it for me because she was so lovely, and her life was different to other makeup artists' lives. So I don't think I ever fully experienced makeup as an assistant the way many, many other people did. Um, she'd just left her makeup agency, she was still the head of um Ilamaska, the creative head of Ilamasca. And so we used to do show shows in Paris and shoots in London. She'd had a baby and so didn't want to do any more traveling than that. The baby came with when we went to Paris with her partner. And then we stayed together, so we'd be together a lot of every week, but um, we'd stay in the same Airbnb together, we'd spend all our time together as like a group of four or five people, and then um, and I did that for four or five, no, maybe four years, I'm not quite sure. Um, and it was fabulous. I mean, if you know Alex Box's work, I mean, how could it not be fabulous? I mean, we had some very long 24-hour day shoots and stuff, but generally my life was not being treated unkindly. I mean, it never was being treated unkindly, but I didn't have any of that kind of come to my house, get my suitcase, and put it in a cab for me. You know, it was like, I'll meet you there.

SPEAKER_01 8:24

Okay. It was it sounds like a very professional relationship.

SPEAKER_00 8:28

Yes, absolutely.

SPEAKER_01 8:29

And that's interesting that you mentioned that she bought her child on jobs with her. I guess at this stage you perhaps weren't a mother. Did you have any concept of what perhaps she was going through to actually bring her child away with her?

SPEAKER_00 8:44

Uh, probably not. Her partner came with as well. By the time I got involved, he was probably like 18 months old, and I think um he didn't need to be right by her side all the time. So her partner would bring him along. Um, but it was never really, I mean, I don't know. It was just nice. We'd all go for lunch together and do stuff. Like I really don't know what other people do because it's not what I did. I have no idea nothing to compare it to.

SPEAKER_01 9:09

Well, it's it sounds like a very healthy, as I said, healthy professional relationship.

SPEAKER_02 9:15

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 9:15

And you were assisting her, and then I guess you naturally like got the creative itch, right? To like leave and go out on on your own.

SPEAKER_00 9:23

Yeah, I guess so. Again, I probably could have stayed there for a lot longer. I got I became pregnant, um, and that was in 2015. Was it? Yeah, no, it would have been, and Alex, we were still doing shows, so I came along pregnant, and my she I brought my husband so he could help. So there was me, Alex, her partner, my husband, her son, my pregnant belly, and then uh two other assistants, and we all stayed in an Airbnb together, and then we just and then like Roscoe and my partner would come up and help with kits and stuff and take them places with us. Um, and then it just got to a point where Alex was like, You can't not, you can't assist me anymore. She was like, I will I will let you go. My you are free. You have learnt everything you need to learn from me. Go spread your wings. Because we were kind of at this point started to work with the same photographers, and I was it was again these like amazing female photographers that we're not talking like some of the more dodgy ones that are around now, you know, that she probably has worked with in the past because that was just the how the way things went. But yeah, and so I left her, and uh I don't know how what was the length of time, but basically then started looking for my own agency.

SPEAKER_01 10:38

And I guess like that must actually be quite daunting to have your child. Um, that's a whole like new unknown world, and then also from you know, your professional mother said, Hey, like flee the nest, yeah, go out on your own. What was going through your mind? Like, can you remember how that felt?

SPEAKER_00 11:01

I don't think it felt particularly scary because I was always doing my own work alongside assisting her. She didn't need me five days a week or seven days a week, as some people do. Um, so it wasn't a huge change. Um, but yeah, it was scary. It 100% was scary. Um, but it felt good. And I had, I'm trying to think, Talula, my first child was born in December of that year. Um, so I must, it was all around the same time. I think it was such a blur between having a baby, leaving that, starting on your own. I mean, who knows? But I was in such shock, and to be fair, quite a heightened anxiety of having a child. I don't think anything else really compared to it.

SPEAKER_01 11:46

Fine. So that was really taking up all of your brain space.

SPEAKER_00 11:50

Yeah. I mean, we uh live differently, me and Roscoe. He, my husband's a artist himself, so no one has a proper job, and that means that in some ways it's incredible. Like he is an artist, he doesn't have a s uh uh office to go to, he you know, he has appointments and meetings and stuff, but not huge amounts. So he picks up a load, he he does so much with the kids. So in some ways, I did go back to work really quickly. I had to start taking money jobs at least within Tolulo. I was like within six weeks.

SPEAKER_01 12:24

Wow, okay. Um and what was that like? Six weeks postpartum, and you're picking up work.

SPEAKER_00 12:31

Um I mean it was a shock to the system. My breastfeeding uh journey had gone quite terribly wrong just because I wasn't producing enough milk and she was born at Christmas and I couldn't find the help I needed from the right midwives to try and help. And I mean it's a long or boring story, but um it did I so basically by this point she was being bottle fed. And as much as my mental health didn't love that, it the best thing that could have happened because if she'd ended up being one of those babies who just couldn't leave the breast, I think we would have been in such trouble. Um, so yeah, she was being bottle fed by her father when I was not there. So and I was working, you know, like one to two days a week max. It wasn't five days a week.

SPEAKER_01 13:20

Um that was 2015, so that's 11 years ago. Do you feel like you you mentioned about the mental health and um the breastfeeding journey ending sooner than I guess you would have anticipated? Do you feel like you've made peace with that?

SPEAKER_00 13:38

Yeah, I have because I think I wish I'd have done it under my terms, but it really was the best thing that could have happened, having not known how much. I mean, I watched other friends who'd had babies at the same time who who like six months in couldn't leave the baby with their partners because they couldn't get they couldn't get the baby to take a bottle. And I was like, holy crap, like that's just not possible from for us. So yeah, I I mean definitely I would prefer it to have to not have happened like it did. I think it was just a case of me. Uh you when you have a baby on the 20th of December, five days later when the midwife's supposed to come round and weigh them, that's Christmas Day. So on the 24th, they come round and weigh them, and they're like, Oh, she's lost too much weight. It wasn't actually at the cutoff, but it wasn't close far off it. And because of the time of year, they were like, Go to AE, you have to. So we went to AE and they were like, Ah, well, yeah, she's just teetering on the edge. They're not allowed to. I mean, think the max is like 11% of their birth weight, and um, they were like, Let's put her on formula just to be safe. And I it with my second child, I would have been like, hold your horses, give me a three or four days, I'll come back. But at the time, I was like, You're the professionals, I don't know what I'm doing. So, yeah, okay.

SPEAKER_01 14:53

Yeah, and I think that opens up just topic of conversation for like first-time mums not really like not being able to advocate for themselves and like not really like knowing how things are, and you do put so much trust in the medicals in the medical profession, um, and telling you how to do and but it does sound like that for your career and for what the family needed perhaps financially, it worked out um worked out for the best.

SPEAKER_00 15:26

Yeah, 100%.

SPEAKER_01 15:27

Tell me some of the highlights of your makeup career.

SPEAKER_00 15:32

Um well, joy being with Alex was definitely one of them. I had it, yeah, that was fabulous. Um, and then after and then getting joining St. Luke's, which is how I met you originally.

SPEAKER_01 15:43

Yes, exactly, is um where we where we met and you shared a lovely story about how the agents, the owner of the agency didn't bat an eyelid when you told them that you're a mother? Like how what what does that feel like as an artist trying to find an agency, but being conscious that you are a mother, so you can't just you know, you can't um drop everything at a drop of a hat. You know, how does that feel when you go in and present yourself and have those kind of conversations?

SPEAKER_00 16:20

But I don't think I even fully appreciated how much people would react, good or bad, to that being a situ the situ my situation. I I you know, you leave one of the top makeup artists, leaves being the first assistant to one of the top makeup artists in the world, and then you start doing meetings, and everyone wants to meet you because of what you've just done, and that is great. And I just I realized I didn't know what I was looking for in an agency. I wanted a really good one, and I wanted them to really like me, and I wanted to make lots of money so I could look after my family. That was I mean, I couldn't have told you other than that what I was looking for. I mean, I knew I wanted to be working in the best editorial I could do and the best, but other than that, I mean there's that was it. So I started meeting people and I met one and it would have been going the inter the meeting was going really well, and then I said I had a kid and her face just dropped, and I was and it just draw dawned on me then and there. I was like, Oh shit, okay. And then I realized that hair and makeup artists can work a lot and you can make money off us. So, like, we don't have prepping where there's not weeks of meetings, we're either on a job or we're not on a job. Yeah, there might be a few days of things, but it's never not like photography or styling. So they want you to work a lot, they want to keep you getting on those planes, and um, and I was like, ah, and actually that's I wasn't saying I couldn't do that, I was saying I need you can't tell me at 6 p.m. tonight that I have to be on a plane tomorrow. That's just not how this works. Um, so then that I quickly realized that, and then I met St. Luke's and I and I said to them, I just dropped into conversation, I had a baby, and they were like, uh-huh, like nothing, like they didn't need they just it wasn't did nothing, didn't cross their mind, didn't faze them at all. And I was like, Oh, okay. And it was mainly it was all women actually, yeah. And I I quickly realized like that's what I'm looking for, is for an agency that is cool with that, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 18:25

Um, and I think that um that acceptance of other mums and like being in that tribe of women like who just get it, I think for me that's what I've found so powerful since becoming a mum. And it's like all of a sudden you're part of like the best girl band in the world.

SPEAKER_00 18:47

Yeah, yeah, absolutely. And suddenly, you know, it doesn't matter if you've got any other connection to these people at all. But if you realize you both got a kid, you're like, I see you.

SPEAKER_01 18:57

Yeah, I see you, I know what you're going through. Um, and I think especially in the creative industries when there can be such competitive nature, or you know, comparing yourself to other people, you know, as soon as you find that it's like, oh, you're both mothers, you're both parents. Like, I don't know, there is that connection, which I think is really, really lovely.

SPEAKER_00 19:20

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 19:21

Um and so yeah, makeup seemed like it was going well. And then like ta we then, I guess, like shift into the textile world. Like, did you just wake up one day with an idea and you're like, okay, this is what's gonna, this is how I'm this is what I wanna do, or like how tell me more about that.

SPEAKER_00 19:44

Um yeah, I've been doing makeup for ages. I can't even I couldn't tell you now how long I've been doing makeup, I can't remember when I started. But um I I think COVID came and went, and I'd had my second baby, and that happened in well, I had him April 2019, and COVID started what, February 2020, so he was 10 months old. And um and so that was it, and then like the world went weird, right? Like it just went weird. And I found out um I can't remember exactly, but around the same time as having my son, then my mum was sick, and in a weird way though, she wasn't gonna drop dead on us anytime soon, but we had about four years left with her because her liver was failing, and so um I so anyway, COVID happened. They stayed in my parents stayed in Spain because that's where they were living, and they didn't want to come back here to be like, I don't know. I don't blame them. Yeah, um, and then um and then she did, she died eventually in 2022. But I think the whole industry had just it's been it's never pulled been the same since COVID. I don't know if you agree, but I mean it just hasn't. The travel's not the same. People like really cut back on what they were producing, what were they photographing at that point, and they never really pulled back. So I can't say I was loving it even before mum's death. But then mum died, and uh we had a storage unit full of stuff in Waterloo. Um, we went through, and I inherited or took to enough at it, um, my mum's sewing machine, which had been my grandma's sewing machine. It was electric, but I swear to god, this must be like the first electric sewing machine known to man. It's made of steel. This bad boy is heavy, but it's not gonna break on you. Um, and then and to deal with the grief, I started doing random courses. I joined up to a um a website called Create Academy.

SPEAKER_02 21:41

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 21:42

And I did some online courses and I was like curtain making, quilting, block printing. I also went to like the local adult college, did some uh pottery interior design uh not interior design, upholstery. Great so all sorts of random stuff. But um And it was just a good I mean, I don't really under know exactly how it helped me. I wasn't sitting there doing these things thinking of mum, but it was just nice to be. I'll tell you what it was. It was nice to be sitting at a table and doing something creative. This says more about the fashion industry than my mum's death, to be honest, but um but no one was judging me.

SPEAKER_02 22:21

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 22:22

Like the thing with fashion is you do the makeup and then everyone in the room has a look and has an opinion. And half the time you're not you're not there saying this is what I envision for this look. Someone's like, I want this. And you're like, okay, I'll do that.

SPEAKER_01 22:34

Definitely. Because I was getting because you know, like the makeup world is very much about other people's vision, and your business is entirely yours.

SPEAKER_00 22:44

Yeah, exactly. And and yeah, no, yeah, no one has a say. And at the time it wasn't a business, so I was just sat there and I was just messing around. Um, and so I but block printing a particular out of all of those. I'm not a quilter. That is I mean, it was good to have a go, but holy no, that's not me. Um and pottery also, no. Um, but I love paint because obviously, and I actually really prefer using colour on flat surfaces. I mean, half the time when I'm doing like makeup art uh models faces, I'm like, oh, I wish that I wish that was not there, or I could get rid of those eyebrows, hence why everyone bleaches models' eyebrows. Um so I um so I spent some time just um block printing with different things. I cut some things out of lino, I bought some blocks, and it's really boring and methodical. Um, but I find it very meditative and exactly that, those two other things as well. But I enjoy it. I enjoy that kind of just constant, slow creation of something. Um, and then as I was doing it, I started to really I don't know if I was really thinking about it, but like the things like that appeal to me are things based around my childhood. Like we spent a lot of my childhood in America because of my dad's work, and like this is the 80s and 90s in LA. I mean, this is like peak, you know, save by the bell. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Um, so I was like started doing more nostalgic. Like, I've got a design which has red stripes and yellow dots, like true like 90s, and um, and I started mess like being really inspired by these old magazine covers of some really mental interior design in LA houses. Um, and so I did more and more of that, and and it was just really cleared my head, and I was creating stuff that people started to like because I was putting on Instagram and no one had a say, and I was like, oh no, what I want to do and what I think are my creative uh thoughts are really good. Like it was the first time that I've been like validated myself and been like, oh no, actually, yeah, I know exactly what I'm doing. And it was probably it's like a confidence boost, right?

SPEAKER_01 24:56

Somebody recognising what you're doing and giving praise and saying, like, yeah, I did that myself for myself.

SPEAKER_00 25:05

Yeah, exactly. It was it did exactly that. It was I did this big fat tomato, I made it out of lino, and I put it on this piece of fabric, and I mashed all the paint in and hand painted the stalks on. And it's because like comedy is like a constant ongoing joke in my family that I love tomatoes. I do, I could eat them for every meal. I don't need all I need is some salt, and we're good to go. Um, yeah. But again, my childhood, all I could imagine, like we stayed in some right dodgy old motels, but we'd eat like tomatoes on bread by the by the pool and stuff. It was, you know, it was it's always been like an on-running joke. So um, so I did that and I put up put that on, and yeah, it's just a tomato, and I put it on Instagram, and people went wild for it, and I was like, huh. Oh yeah. And it was from me, like that's my that's me. I mean, I know it's just a tomato, but it also was like ever all this stuff that's in my head from my past that I would never have thought of doing for makeup because obviously you're not gonna paint. I mean, there'd be very strange reasons to have to paint a tomato on someone's face, not impossible though. Um, and suddenly I could do it on this fabric, and people really loved it. And I was like, uh-huh. Kind of was just a few things clicked that day.

SPEAKER_01 26:14

Okay, and so were you then like I could potentially make some money from it?

SPEAKER_00 26:22

Yes, I did start thinking that, and I can't quite remember why or when, but I remember what I do remember is Glassette, the online marketplace, got in contact. I think because of who I know being in the fashion industry and the connections. Um, they saw it and they reached out and said, Would you be interested in selling through us?

SPEAKER_01 26:45

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 26:46

At this point, I'd started turning. I think my first tomato was a cushion because I was also trying to teach myself how to use this sewing machine.

SPEAKER_01 26:53

Okay, okay, yep.

SPEAKER_00 26:54

Um, and I'd just done a quilting course.

SPEAKER_01 26:56

So I kind of marry the two together.

SPEAKER_00 26:58

I was just messing around. Um, but by this point I was printing onto linen and I was hemming the corners, hemming the sides, because that's basically the one thing I could do on a sewing machine, and I didn't want to make more than that. I didn't I wasn't gonna make clothes, so that's you know, with uh there are better people out there who can do that. So I was I'd turned them into table linen, which again had really um kind of shone a light on my childhood because we eat so much as a family. We have big meals, we have like all our family traditions are based around meals, yeah. Um, and so it just seemed to kind of make sense completely. Um, so I so people started saying, so Glassette reached out and said, could we sell them? And I was like, Oh yeah, okay, but they'll still be hand printed and I'll do them myself, and that'll be fine. So that's what happened. And then Holly and Co. did the same thing, and I started a little website, and I was like, Oh yeah, this is this is sweet. And then very quickly I realized this was becoming far bigger than myself, and I couldn't hand print everything. I was like not sleeping, I was up all night, printing, printing, printing, iron, ironing, ironing.

SPEAKER_01 28:08

And that just became your life, and basically, and like you know, block printing is obviously it it's slow, it's physical, you said you were hand making everything. Like, was that a deliberate choice? Like that pace and like having things slowed down, or like what was important about that process to you?

SPEAKER_00 28:31

Um, I don't think it was the speed so much, but what I loved about the process of block printing is it's imperfect. And I am not a perfectionist in any way, shape, or form. I don't want to be either. I'm pretty sure I'm I'm self-diagnosed ADHD and I just don't have it in me. So the slowness of making the piece doesn't bother me at all. I don't need that to go quicker, but I also love the idea that every time I print it is different, and sometimes only half of it comes out, and other times it comes out all full of it fully, and that's the beauty of it, and no one can moan about it because that's how it's supposed to look, and then on top of it, you can do it however you want. Like traditional Indian block printing is you have a different block for every colour, but I started just slamming paint onto the same block, like the tomato is literally half red and half black, and I just smush it all onto the same block and see what happens when I pull it up. And that's I've acts kind of accidentally but beautifully made my own version of block printing that isn't the traditional.

SPEAKER_01 29:33

Yeah, you've made you've made it your own, you've made it your own, I guess, identity as well.

SPEAKER_00 29:40

Absolutely. And post and it's because I would never, it's not in my nature to have thought, I'll cut half that tomato out and that'll be the red half, and I'll cut that half out and I'll make that the black half, and then I'm gonna have to measure, tally them up every time I print them. Oh no, no, no, that would have gone so wrong. I'm like, no, we'll put it all on one and we'll see what happens.

SPEAKER_01 29:59

Yeah, I love that. That's almost kind of again like bringing it back to motherhood. It's a little bit like you can't always plan for things. It's very much like let's see what happens. And when you were starting your textiles business, how like how old were your kids? And like were they, you know, were they getting involved with it if everything's like done at home, or like were they an inspiration at all?

SPEAKER_00 30:27

Um, what how old were they? They probably were 22, 23. So I'd say Tolula was probably six, and my son Bodie must have been three.

SPEAKER_01 30:37

Okay, so very young.

SPEAKER_00 30:39

Yeah. Um, no, they can't get involved because they'll ruin not allowed to touch on his work.

SPEAKER_01 30:47

Does that make it even more imperfect?

SPEAKER_00 30:50

Maybe, but not in a good way. Um, even now. If like I would love to hire my daughter and pay her a bit of money to help pack packing and stuff, but yeah, our house is incredibly creative, it's it's just covered in paints and glitter and all sorts. I think we've just come to the realisation that in this house lives a textiles artist and a collage artist, my husband, and two very creative kids. So this house is an art studio that we live in, basically. It's not a beautiful, beautiful thought out home.

SPEAKER_01 31:21

And do you feel then your children have really embodied that creative spirit?

SPEAKER_00 31:26

Oh, yeah, definitely. My daughter, especially. But my son, yeah, he's getting there, he's taking a he's warming up to it now. But she um we have like a big box that they can open, and there's glitter and powders, and you know, she's got all the old stuff from my kits that I don't use so much anymore that she can get involved in and not for makeup for anything, but she's there, so yeah, they are 100% more creative because of it, and they don't mind mess at all because they'll do it anywhere, they don't care.

SPEAKER_01 31:56

And and before you had children, did you envision that was kind of like the life you wanted to give them? You wanted to make sure that they had that creative spirit within them.

SPEAKER_00 32:07

Uh, I don't think I did to be honest. I don't know what I thought. I thought they're very um my daughter, especially more because she's older and she's a girl, but you can really you saw her personality shine through so early on. Uh, she's a show girl. She is. So um I think that kind of seemed obvious. I'm still trying to figure out what my son really, what his real passions lie, other than Minecraft. But um, it's um it's I think it was kind of obvious. Yeah, looking back, obviously they were gonna turn into these types of kids because this is how we live. And we were never finicky. I'm not I'm not precious about their clothes, and I, you know, whatever. But um, but it wasn't the plan, no. We never planned it to be like this, it's just how we live.

SPEAKER_01 32:55

Yeah, I think that's something so like it's just like you are yourselves, right? This is you, and I also love that they will grow up thinking that's exactly what everyone else is like, right? Because that's what you do when you're younger, you just think your family is like how everyone else is, and then you realise like my um family are really big, uh come from a really big football family, and it's only an adult life. I realise that not all families are big football families. Um, and what would you say you are most proud of in your career since becoming a mother?

SPEAKER_00 33:36

Um I think I'm proud of being showing my daughter what's possible. I mean, they get really angry at me when I can't make it to school shows and guilt trick me into buying them presents. But maybe it's because they've learned they can do that. Um but I used to watch my parents, they started their own business together, and that's what I never saw my parents with bosses or have their own boss. They were always the boss, and I love being my own boss, and I love that my kids look at me and want to and my daughter comes up with like a business plan a day at the moment. She's like, Maybe I could sell this. Could I sell that? Maybe I could sell this, and so she's just constantly thinking about how to come up with a new job. Um, and I love that. I mean, I I'm not at everything, and you know, I've come to terms with it, but the fact that my kids see me, I'm like, Mummy's working, you know that's the deal, and they're like, Okay. I'm like, but yeah, that's you grow up in a household where that's what happens, and you know, I think it's I think it's a plus. I know other people don't, but I think it's a huge plus for the kids to see that.

SPEAKER_01 34:41

Yeah, I I think so, and especially seeing your work, like both you and your husband's work, like out in the home. Because again, I remember from being a child, is like to go to your parents' office is like the most exciting thing in the world.

SPEAKER_02 35:00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 35:01

And so then, therefore, to like see, you know, what mum and dad do like that's they've got to take that in.

SPEAKER_00 35:09

Yeah, they I mean, they were in a photo shoot the other day, we did um on the heath of some new table linen designs, but they help Roscoe sell at the art fairs. Yeah. I mean, they are very much involved because I mean, we all are. If Roscoe has to sell stuff, he's got these big pieces of wood and things we have to take places, then we're all in the car together. They might be squeezed up because we put the back seat down and they fill we filled it to the rafters, and then they can either come with me to like drop the car off and spend the day in town, or they can stand with Roscoe and sell his stuff with him, and most of the time they'd prefer to stay stay with him.

SPEAKER_01 35:40

Yeah, it's such such a great um education. So I'm thinking like most people would have kept perhaps the textiles as a side project, right? And I even speak to my own clients who want to pivot or who want to do more. And perhaps they would have then, or you would have held on to the safety of that makeup career, especially as you trained in it, you assisted, you were building up your client base. What do you think was the moment you decided to take it seriously? And what did you have to let go of to do that?

SPEAKER_00 36:16

Um, well, somebody told me I had to take it seriously. I I um I ended up bit selling through a brand called Holly and Co. online, and she Holly Tucker is the owner, and she used to own, she started not on the high street 20 years ago or whatever. And um, so she'd left there, started this new thing I joined, and then she messaged me. Oh no, somebody messed, one of her people messaged me and was like, Holly would love to have a meeting. And I was like, Oh, okay. And then by chance, we ended up having dinner with some other female entrepreneurs, and um they were all like having conversations about should they sell their business and stuff. And I was just like, I what? I I haven't even got a business. I just make stuff and sell it online. Well, I feel very out of my loop here, out of the depth here. But Holly like took me aside and was like, we're gonna have a meeting, it's gonna, you know, we just have to chalk talk things out. So we sat down uh virtually, and um, she was like, Look, your stuff's amazing. I know it will sell wildly. You have to make a decision now. Is this just like a fun side hustle or is this a business? Because if it's a business, you can't hand print this anymore, you're gonna have to find another way of doing this, and then that's where we'll go from there. I was like, Oh, okay, yeah, well, yeah, I guess so. And I kind of knew in my heart of hearts it was getting too much. Um, uh, so I she was like, You're either gonna find a studio in India who can block print it for you, or maybe you digitally print it, or however you want to do this, you're gonna have to figure this out. So we did. We chose my five bestsellers, we decided to start that process. I mean, she was just there as a mentor. I was doing it with my by this point, I'd taken my makeup assistant on as my textiles assistant because she's incredible. So we started the process. This process took so long. I was like, yeah, fine, we'll just like scan some of the block prints and then we'll just print it on some fabric, right? Nope. That's not easy. Uh so we spent ages. I mean, we we finally got to a point we were happy with last Christmas where we and we released the Christmas designs as digital printed designs. What just harking back, one of the reasons that Holly also thought this needed to be done was because my pieces were so expensive. And she was like, the waitress woman is feeling squeezed at the moment. That's what she said. I loved it, and it can't get and I'm like, and my customer is the waitress woman.

SPEAKER_01 38:39

Sure.

SPEAKER_00 38:39

And um, she was like, they can't really justify 400 pounds on a tablecloth, but they could justify 200 pounds on a tablecloth. And I was like, okay, right, yeah. So it was kind of um, get me off the table because I can't do it myself, get the prices down because we have to make this more affordable, all these things. So we got to a point at Christmas and we were happy with it, and we did that was the first release of like digitally printed products that we ended up digitally printing in the UK. As I said earlier about my the way I block print, I don't do it normally. So taking it to a studio in India just didn't ever seem feasible to me because they just want to know what you want and where do you want it, and they'll do the rest. And I can't be there with a lobster going, like, you could put a little bit of orange there, a little bit of red there, see how you feel, and then you put it down, they'd be like, No.

SPEAKER_01 39:29

So um instead, we uh decided to digitally print it, so we we spent a lot of time scanning my prints and then transferring them to digital prints, and yeah, and like learning all of that process and learning that everything that comes um through that. What do you think the biggest lessons are that you've learned since running and owning this textiles business?

SPEAKER_00 39:54

I mean, I I know nothing, I just I know I can I know what I like. I've I've taught myself, I've I've been even today I was thinking about it. Like I I I have a very good eye from of colour and design, but also like imagery. I know what images I like and what images I don't like, I know what font I like, I know what font I don't like. Like, give me that stuff, I can make those decisions and I trust myself. Whereas I think when it comes down to like the world of digital printing, nothing. I know nothing. And then the accounts and finance side of it. I mean, the more people order, the more I realize I need more money to make those orders. And yes, money is coming in, but it's just a real seesaw of like ins and outs and space. I don't want to rent a huge space to hold all this fabric when I don't need to right now, I don't think. But we're not far off having to maybe consider it. And at what point do I decide that's what I want to do and that's what I want to spend money on? I don't know. These are the things I'm I'm just I'm you know, I I do 10 jobs now. Instead of me just block printing and putting it on Instagram and people buying it, suddenly I'm like a content creator and an accountant and a marketeer, and I just and I well, I mean I've got to say there's a lot I hate about AI, but thank God for AI in some form because I yeah, I bet it like it can definitely help you, and like that's really interesting.

SPEAKER_01 41:24

Like, how are you using AI?

SPEAKER_00 41:26

I use it I use it for emails and stuff, and for like right making up price, well not making up pricing, I say it's pricing. I'm like, can you turn this into a spreadsheet? Or you're you, Sabrina, I know are very good at these things. You've got the an amazing brain for this, but thank you. But I don't, and um, but things like I don't want it them to write my email, but I want to say, look, I need to email this person, I want to say this, that, and the other, and I wanted to say it friendly, but I'm I you know, but I also I don't want to take the piss. It will write something and it will sound weird, but it's like a starter point because if you just give me an empty email page and tell me to write this email to someone, I'll just stare at it. I mean, I'll get a pay, you know, a couple of lines in and then lose my crap and walk away. It's it's so good for that for me.

SPEAKER_01 42:15

How would you describe your career now compared to before motherhood?

SPEAKER_00 42:22

Um, I mean through my own choices, it is like a 20-hour a day career. I always laugh, but there's a meme going around and it says something like uh having a baby and thinking, you know what, I'll quit my full-time job and just start my own little side hustle that and then you end up working like double the amount of time. It's not, it doesn't help at all. It does doesn't help with looking after children, but um yeah, I think I mean I think I'm exactly where I'm supposed to be. I decided to do this out of my own choice, and then I decided to grow it, and I knew where how what that would entail, and I'm fine with it. I really am. I don't want to sit around at home not creating, yeah. But I also didn't I could never work in an office or get I couldn't suddenly be like, you know what, I just need some money and I don't care where it comes from. That I would just no.

SPEAKER_01 43:21

And I think it's really inspiring that you've just again like gone with the flow, like not necessarily had a plan, but seen what works, like you are a creative at heart, and you just you had the urge you needed to create, you know. It also came out from a emotionally like a place of emotional struggle with you, you know, grieving for your mother and like going through all of that process. And I'm sure when you started to do those courses, you could never have a vision envisioned that like we're doing pre-sale now, we're you know, selling so many different. kinds of products and like everything that you've learnt.

SPEAKER_00 44:03

It's incredible. I mean I really I so interesting to I would never I never wanted to be a textiles designer. I've never said to myself you know what I'd love to do that. If anything I see some really really crappy boring textiles on the high street and I think who designed that and why did these people buy it? Like this is awful. And I do think and I say this not just from textiles but lots of things not studying it is probably what made my stuff good. I don't have I just do what I want. I don't know I don't know what I'd be taught if I got taught it. I don't care. I like tomatoes that's what I did. I liked these you know kind of saved by the bell stripes that's what I made and it's all because that's what's in me and that's my past and my authenticity and that's what came out and that's what people love. If someone had taught me what to do I don't think I would have done it.

SPEAKER_01 44:53

Yeah and also it's like not having any expectation um around like who's looking over your shoulder. I had a really similar conversation um with another artist on the podcast, Lydia Sharef and she said about she was talking about how she's creating for her and she's not putting stuff on Instagram because like she doesn't want to have eyes over her shoulder looking at what she's done and and that kind of feels like the success of how you have grown this business is because like you've done it from you but you've not done it because it's someone else's vision and I think actually with how the industry is changing that's perhaps a lesson that a lot more creatives could learn and could take on to like get back to the true artist and create for themselves.

SPEAKER_00 45:45

Yeah I agree. And I but I also think the the luck in it I mean I don't I think you bring your own luck but the luck in it is that I found block printing and that's actually the best place for me to translate that kind of what's inside me to what's on the page. Because you know when you you know there's people are like you can write a book or write music. If I did either of those things no matter how authentic I was to myself that'd be god awful um but I found this thing and it doesn't it's not a million miles away from makeup really it's it's paint it's colour that's what I love and I don't think I ever fully appreciated that's what I loved but it is it was just it's just painting in another form on something else. So that's where it changed me.

SPEAKER_01 46:28

But yeah if you'd asked me to write a song about my childhood that would have been awful well you never know and and I guess who knows um how how do you make it work what do you think the secret is to or can you give even any advice to a mum that is like working a job wanting to grow a side hustle has like a very busy family life like how do you make it work?

SPEAKER_00 46:56

I think you have to work really hard I'm sorry to say it I don't I mean I really do I don't think sorry I'm thinking of these sayings there's a saying that's like work harder than anybody else would to have a life anybody else couldn't and it's true like I just there's no way of I don't believe that you can create if you want to create a big big successful business and you can have children and create a big successful business yes but you can't do it. There's no way of doing it equally if you know what I mean. I j the children get dragged to things all the time and I've missed school shows and but I take them on holiday they go on nice holidays and I make sure I'm there when they really need me there but they do I do miss out on stuff. I just don't there's no I just I can't see how anyone could do it any differently.

SPEAKER_01 47:57

Yeah okay so there's there is a sacrifice that needs to be made but you can make up for it in other ways.

SPEAKER_00 48:07

Yeah I mean I just yeah I have to say we have no family here like no one can help us. I can't ask my dad to come and have the kids every Thursday he lives abroad. My I've got three brothers none of them live close enough to help Roscoe's mum's too old and she lives away I mean we've got no one here so it's me and him and by fluke and luck he is an artist who works from home so he can pick up so much slack and in some ways if he suddenly decided to get a job in an office I don't know what we'd do because then we'd have to have find money for childcare and this whole thing would be a lot harder whereas right now yes one of us has to take the hit on the money to look after the kids and the other one has to take the hit on looking being with the kids to make the money. But it works for us. The kids are never with in childcare unless they're in like after school clubs and that works for us perfectly and that's the only way we've had it worked ever since we've had the kids we've never had any help. And so that's worked for us.

SPEAKER_01 49:09

And do you know what something is so beautiful is like you sound like you're a real team and I can see you and how you've linked your hands together is also like in a team um team way and yeah I think that really shows you know you need the support of of each other yeah um which has really um contributed to the success of everything that you are creating. So Nick tell tell us where can we find your work where can we buy your work tell us everything you can find my work on my website which is www.nikbritton.com I'm on Instagram a lot which is at nickbritton and then you can also find me on MasonFelina and on Holly Co. And then hopefully a lot more places in 2027 but that's all under wraps um that is exciting so yeah but if you ever I do enjoy a good camera chat on Instagram so if you ever want to chat to me you do and you know what I actually mentioned it at the um top of the episode like you do it so well I feel like I know so much about your life like your love for cold water swimming and yeah it's very very like you are your brand you are your product you are that like soul and energy and for anyone that isn't familiar with yourself or your work I really really encourage you to check out Nick's work because it is really really beautiful so thank you so much for speaking to me today I'm really pleased we got to have this conversation and thank you yeah we'll chat to you soon thank you thank you so much for listening to this conversation with Nick Britton what stays with me about our chat is how plainly she talks about the cost of it. There's no romanticising no pretending it's all balance and harmony just you have to work really hard you can't do it equally and here's what we've given up as a family even to make it work. And then in the same breath the pride in her voice when she talks about her daughter watching her be her own boss and coming up with a new business plan every day. That's really special you'll find links to Nick's work in the show notes and follow the podcast and leave a quick review of this spoke to you. It makes a huge difference and helps more mothers and creatives find these conversations you've been listening to Mothers of Creativity I'm Sabrina Starr and it's brought to you by Blickbit Media