INSPIRE: The Road Less Travelled...Emma Bennett

This week we're delighted to introduce Emma Bennett of Emma Bennett Collage. She has had a wide and varied career history, which is also an apt description for her beautiful collage work. 

Tell us a bit about yourself

My name is Emma Jayne Bennett, and I run Emma Bennett Collage.  A trained Teacher, after teaching in inner city schools in Birmingham, I spent 2 years teaching English in China with the charity organisation Voluntary Services Overseas. Returning to the UK, I trained in exhibition development at the Science Museum in London where I worked on the Millenium extention to the museum for almost three years.  After this, 5 years was spent as Head of Exhibitions at the Building Exploratory in Hackney, a community exhibition designed to get people involved in all aspects of their built environment. 

Moving to Cambridge in 2004 I worked at the Architecture Centre for the Eastern Region teaching architectural workshops in schools and organising high level conferences for 5 years. 

What prompted you to pursue a creative career?
In 2010 my husband was offered a position as Director of Policy and Campaigns with the environmental charity Friends of the Earth.  At the time I was juggling 2 young children (then aged 5 and 3), and a demanding job often involving very long days and lots of regional travel.  My husband‘s new job meant a return for him of commuting back and forth London as well as UK and international travel.  For a while I had been fitting in my love for collage - making pictures and cards in my spare time - and was having some success selling them at fairs and through word of mouth.  This change in my husband’s job provided an ideal opportunity to see if I could make a career out of producing collage pictures full time, whilst being around more for my children.

What was the most difficult thing about this decision? And what was the easiest?
The easiest thing was that I knew I would be doing something full time that I love and that I could work from home and life would be easier juggling the children and my creative endeavers.

The most difficult was going from earning a good salary which provided me with a degree of independence to earning not a lot to start with. 

How supportive of your decision were your family, friends and (former) colleagues?
My family were incredibly supportive, particularly my husband and Mother who knew that I was going to do something that I would enjoy and be fulfilled by.  Friends that knew what I was going to do were very supportive and have continued to be encouraging - others I kept it quiet from to start with in case I didn’t get anywhere!

How has pursuing a creative career been compared with your previous career? What are the challenges, and what are the highlights?
I absolutely love working for myself and producing detailed hand-cut collage pictures, prints, cards and now stationery (including a new range of notebooks).  I use only old magazines for producing my pictures so every one is different according to the source.  I am far more fulfilled creating art and enjoy the challenges of designing and maintaining my own web site, networking and coming up with new creative ideas than ever I was in my last job.  When I miss the teaching element of my old job I go to the local school and do collage workshops with the children there.

The highlights so far have been hosting my first exhibition in Cambridge last year, a four page article of my work in (Cambridge) Style magazine, selling lots of pictures and prints, getting commissions and meeting similar minded artists and people dedicated to producing hand made things.

Challenges have been to get my work seen and keeping momentum in earlier quieter periods.  Having supportive local networks of similar minded people and on-line forums such as UK Handmade has helped greatly. 

Have you had any regrets about choosing a creative career?
None what so ever.

What has been the best thing about your decision to pursue a creative career?
The best thing is being my own boss and enjoying the work I do. Making money out of something you love doing is fantastic and seeing my art work hang on people’s walls is an amazing and rewarding feeling.

If you could give one piece of advice to someone considering taking up a creative career, what would that be?

Not to expect to be a success overnight, it takes time to come up with products you are happy with.  Also, people won’t come to you, you need to be proactive and get the message out there that you are doing what you are doing.  Use social media where possible, get a web site developed or better still, go on a basic course to learn how to develop your own and enjoy the ride.

What are your plans for the future?
To expand my range of Emma Bennett Collage products, to have another exhibition in 2012 and to get my products into some Cambridgeshire based galleries and shops.

See more of Emma's beautiful work at her website, on Facebook and follow her on Twitter.