It’s a real honour to be given the opportunity to write a post for someone else’s blog. Jesse and I met, in the ‘virtual’ sense of the world, fairly recently thanks to the wonderful knitting and crochet community Ravelry. We then went on to enjoy each other’s blogs (mine is www.imake.gg) and then started chatting about some blog cross-pollination! This is a little bit of that…
I am conscious that this post is really ‘all about me’, it feels a little self-indulgent. The message it carries isn’t though, and I hope that shines though.
A bit about me
So…. Me! I am 32, although I confess I had to double-check this fact as once I turned 30 I seemed to forget my age quite regularly! I live in the lovely Channel Island of Guernsey. It is a tiny island situated between the UK and France with a population of around 66,000. I have lived in Guernsey all my life and I love it, however I do try and get a way regularly, even if it is just across the water to the UK, in order to continue to appreciate it. Living in a small community has many up-sides, but it can get a little claustrophobic.
My creative journey
I have always been creative. My gran taught me to knit at a young age and my mum still owns the first item I knitted (a yellow and brown garter stitch scarf, embellished with pearls!) I studied English literature, art and theatre at school so I was arty in the traditional sense, but never that good. Looking back, I actually was quite good but never had the confidence in my abilities.
Today, I blog and podcast (fairly confidently) about everything creative and handmade. I knit, sew, crochet and scrapbook. I make jewellery, cards, bath products and cosmetics.
Put simply, I blog, podcast and iMake!
My greatest career achievement
Recently I was interviewed for an education publication and I was asked what my greatest career achievement was. My answer was this…
I’ve had a varied career but have always been ambitious – it is something to do with thinking I was always ‘average’ at school. When I left, I became an obsessive over-achiever. Before the age of 30 I was a director of an international finance company specialising in property structures. I worked hard to get to this position. I had a lovely team of staff. The job itself was, well, ok. But I wasn’t passionate about it. The nature of the work wasn’t inspiring, it didn’t really ‘matter’.
I have worked in a variety of different industries (IT, finance, recruitment and training predominately). The one thing that has been constant in all my roles is training. I am a born teacher – always have been. So when I started becoming uninspired in my day job I started iMake as a part time business offering creative workshops to the people of Guernsey.
It was so much fun. I taught people how to knit, and how to make cards, scrapbooks, notebooks, jewellery and other lovely handmade things. I started a stitch n’ bitch group. While doing all of this I also made my own handmade items to sell. I was so much happier. Craft (and teaching craft) was my therapy.
But the day job got worse – something had to give. I was starting to get burnt out working (sometimes) long hours in the day and travelling internationally. I was teaching evenings and weekends for iMake. I was exhausted.
I knew I couldn’t take iMake full-time as there just isn’t the market in Guernsey. So I contacted the local FE college to see if there were any opportunities for experienced trainers with interesting business backgrounds. There was. After a lengthy application process I was offered a one year maternity cover position teaching office administration. I took it, despite the fact that it was a massive gamble. It was a huge pay drop and there was no guarantee of a job there afterwards.
But the gamble paid off. There was a position for me after the one year contract was up. I’ve been there almost 2 years now. Every day I do a job that matters to me. It’s something I care about. I teach vulnerable young adults, many of whom have learning difficulties, and I help them make their way into the working world. It’s the best feeling in the world to share in their success.
As for iMake, now I teach full-time I decided to cut back on the workshops and I am now focused on creating a creative community around my blog and podcast. Eventually I plan to write some ebooks but for now I am happy offering my content for free. I also plan to create some ‘take away’ workshops that people can do in the comfort of their own home. But I am not in a rush to do that. For now I am really enjoying blogging, podcasting and collaborating with inspiring creative people like Jesse.
So in answer to that interview question, my greatest career achievement in is not being afraid to walk away from my well-paid, senior role in finance, to do something important – teaching.
A note from Jesse:
THANKS HEAPS for taking the time to let me, and the Knotty Knickers readers, know more about you, Martine. It's taken me aaaages to post this, and really the hold up was the photos, so if anyone is bothered by the sizing not being to the normal Knotty Knickers format, I'm sorry. I simply couldn't get more techie with it all and I really wanted to show you the pretties so I finally just caved and am putting it up as is. Some of what makes the iMake blog so fantastic to me is the great photography that Martine does and finds by others. It's very inspiring.
If anyone hasn't listened to the iMade podcast yet - you really must. I adore Martine's accent, true enough, but the topics and format are wonderful and varied and it's just a brilliantly well-rounded and engaging offering that I think will brighten your day.
