Working at a large, inner-City organisation, Mary Keens gets her daily dose of excitement during the day. Her hobbies are quiet and artistic, but Mwaah discovered that even when relaxing, Mary doesn’t do anything by halves!
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Mary soon began creating elegant, Victoriana-inspired pieces out of plain old pots, using paper and varnish. “I have a drawer full of source materials, magazines and books that I use,” she admits with a wry grin. Mary’s style is so popular amongst her friends in Little Hallingbury where she lives, that she was encouraged to take her pots to craft fairs. “At one point I sold 50 pots. It took two months to do them all, and I had friends helping to cut things out,” she laughs. “My living room was a production line!”
Harrods also approached Mary with an interest to sell them, but she declined. “They wanted 30 pots a month, and I knew I wouldn’t be able to commit to that with all the other logistics. I didn’t want my hobby to lose its lustre.” Mary has an obvious creative streak, and has recently started teaching herself calligraphy. “All my hobbies are therapeutic; I can just sit down and cut out images or practise my writing. It’s a little bit of pleasure, no matter how mad my day gets.”
Interested in starting out?
- Mary recommends The Decoupage Kit by Belinda Ballantine (available at www.amazon.co.uk)
- Decoupage was a passion of Marie Antoinette, Queen Charlotte and Beau Brummell and practised by Picasso and Matisse.
- Be creative! Take some time to develop your own style. Local arts and crafts shops can be a great starting point.
