2021 round up!

2021 has been an exceptional year with many highs and lows. Personally I feel this year has gone by so slowly, which is very unusual as the years tend to go by quicker as you grow older. I want to thank you so so much for all the love and support you have shown paigesillustrations this year, we couldn't run our little biz without you! I'd like to share some highlights from throughout the year - most of which I can't believe actually happened and I feel extremely lucky to have received these opportunities. 

A very calm start. January was a pretty slow month which I really appreciated. I spent most of my time creating goals for the year, working on new paintings, growing my Etsy shop and creating social media content. This was the best way to prepare and ease myself into the new year!

One of my main goals for 2021 was to develop my pattern design skills. In February I took 3 online classes and experimented with lots of patterns that could be applied to products. I learned a lot this month!

This was a very busy month! After the first two months of the year were spent focusing on expanding my knowledge and developing new ideas I was ready to put this knowledge into action! We introduced three brand new products this month - our A6 botanical pocket notebooks, acrylic tiger keychain and acrylic plant lover pin! Along with new art prints and sticker designs too! 

March also saw my collaboration with Norwich University of the Arts in which I created 2 painting videos for their Instagram and YouTube channel: www.youtube.com/watch?v=QouhWraLiXs

 

I had the incredible opportunity to be a featured artist in the spring issue of Origin Magazine - a wonderful publication showcasing a diverse range of artists and artwork!

In April I also reached 100k followers on TikTok which was mind-blowing! 

This month we introduced a ton of new products including: sticker packs, new acrylic pin designs, stickers and hand painted resin serving trays!

This month was another busy one as I received my first wholesale order from Peak Wildlife Park in Ashbourne! I had been working on wholesale since the beginning of the year (developing great products, making our catalogue and figuring out pricing) and was over the moon to finally receive my first order!

I also had the wonderful opportunity to work with noissueco and created my first ever #sponsored content on TikTok!

Although I had finished university in 2020 we didn't have our graduation due to the pandemic. Callum completed his studies in 2021 and we knew we were leaving Norwich in August so we decided to throw our own special graduation. Both our families drove up and we had a lovely weekend celebrating together!

We spent the majority of this month packing and moving house, we had a short gap in between tenancies and moved in with family for a little while. I got to set up shop in Callum's Nan's art studio, which was amazing! A very hectic month, but lots of time spent with family! We also said goodbye to Norwich in August which was very sad, I miss it a lot!

This was another hectic month but very exciting as we moved into our new home and I finally had a proper studio space! I absolutely loved organising everything and getting it ready to work from! Going from working in a small corner in the living room to having a whole room dedicated to paigesillustrations was incredible!

September also saw the launch of our 2021 Autumn collection!

In October we finally launched our new website (the one you're on right now)! It was a very long process and took months of preparation, but I am so happy with how it turned out! I also finally had the opportunity to visit Peak Wildlife Park and see my products in the wild. This was the most amazing experience!