Hello everyone,
Happy Sunday!!
Christine here owner and creator of handmade by christine, I’ve been thinking about writing a blog or doing a podcast or videos for a while now but wasn’t sure which platform id prefer. I keep getting told I should share my story so I decided to start with a blog as I can sit in my PJ’s and write this.
I thought for my first piece id tell the story of how handmade by christine started and where the inspiration for my courage bears came from.
So, who am I? well I don’t think the answer to this is a simple question as who I am changes, I have had a crazy life with highs and lows and all of my experiences good and bad have changed me and shaped me into who I am right now.
I refer to myself as a mixed race scouse woman, I grew up in Huyton which wasn’t all that fun for a mixed race girl in the 80’s and 90’s I never really felt like I fitted in anywhere I think if I’m honest I’ve always been searching for my place in the world.
I finally think I have found it!
This time last year I was working in plant hire, for those who don’t know what that is. Plant hire is hiring out anything you see on a construction site from cement mixers to cranes I did it all and I was good at it. But plant hire is a very demanding, unforgiving, stressful industry. A colleague of mine once likened it to dealing with a toddler and I cannot think of a better analogy. I remember them telling me to explain things like I was talking to a 2yr old, and I did laugh but they were right.
After 12 years in the industry I was at a point where id lost my passion for the business I turned 41 and as I sat thinking about my life and my future I knew I didn’t want to spend the next 10+ years doing what I was doing, but my problem was that I didn’t know what I could do that would make me similar money. I’m single with no children and a nice big mortgage, mine is the only wage I have coming into the household and the knowledge that I have no safety net has always scared me and driven a lot of the decisions I’ve made throughout my life.
I don’t know what it was but I woke up 1 Sunday morning in July 2022 and lying in bed the business name Handmade By Christine popped into my head I was scrolling on my phone in bed like a lot of people do on a Sunday morning and I came across a course advertised to learn resin art with reson8, I thought why not and booked myself on the course. Off I toddled to do this 1 day course and absolutely loved it. Norman running the course said I seemed to be a natural. From that moment I knew what I wanted to do, and Handmade By Christine was born.
My plan was simple id start off selling on markets of a weekend while continuing in my day job and hopefully 1 day my resin business would grow to a point where I could quit my day job.
Fast forward a few months to October 2022 and all my plans went out the window. Without any warning my contract was terminated, at the time I was also dealing with my senior rescue dog Apollo’s health declining.
This was the 5th time in my 12 year career in plant hire that id been put out of work. I have never been out of work for very long but as I said earlier not having the financial safety net of a second wage coming into the household has always had me grab the first decent salaried job offered and because of this I have never been out of work for more than a few weeks. I am lucky to have built a very good reputation within the plant hire world and this time was no different. Within a few hours of losing my job I had offers on the table.
This time however I decided to try a different path. Maybe the loss of a job that sucked the soul out of me and the fact I had to work from home to take care of Apollo I decided to give my resin business a go. I took my severance pay and booked myself on all the Christmas markets with the hope that as its Christmas I will make a liveable wage.
Unfortunately, 3 weeks after losing my job I had to let Apollo go. Letting him go to sleep forever was the hardest decision I have ever had to make and even a year on I still cry for him. I was broken, I was grieving and still had to eat and pay my mortgage.
To say the end of 2022 was not a good time for me is an understatement. I was broken, I felt lost. Apollo had been my world. But I could not let him suffer. I had been doing well selling my Christmas tree ornaments, rolling trays and keyrings.
My saviour came 19th December in the form of a teeny tiny dinky little staffie called scooby! A friend of mine works with a fabulous charity The Cinnamon Trust and she sent me the picture of this little staffie saying Scooby needs a mummy for Christmas. My house felt so empty without Apollo, but I wasn’t financially secure enough to get another dog, however fostering through The Cinnamon Trust they cover any vet bills. So, after an application process my sweet little Scooby arrived just before Christmas.
I’d herd people saying that when you lose a dog, they send you the dog you need and ill be honest id never really bought into any of that but my Apollo definitely sent Scooby to me, she was everything I needed to help me deal with my grief and depression. She needed me.
So, with a renewed drive and ambition to make my business work, my Christmas ornaments had been my best seller but I couldn’t see many people wanting to buy them in the early part of 2023 so I sat with my muse Scooby on my knee and tried to think what people would want to buy.
I took to etsy to look for inspiration and I came across pocket hugs. I decided when I started my business not to sell something that didn’t mean something to me and holding something in my hand would not make me feel like I was being hugged. Then I came across worry bears and again holding something in my hand would not take away my worries.
So, I started to think about what I would like, and I thought back to when I used to work away. I have always hidden it well, but I have quite high anxiety and one of my biggest triggers was when I used to work away. I would frequently be going into meetings with people I didn’t know in locations all over the country which also meant id be staying in hotels on my own, eating in restaurants on my own and I would get anxious I would worry I had got the date or the venue wrong and id be checking the details as id be stood outside the door.
I would hold the bottle opener on my keyring, id take a deep breath, hold my head high, pull my shoulders back, put the most confident smile on my face and walk through the door and go do what I had to do. That is when I got the idea of lending courage, I thought lots of people have to go do things that trigger them and when its work you don’t have a choice but to go and do the thing that triggers you.
So now I had an idea but no clue what that would look like, so I went into my workshop and looked through my moulds to see if any ideas jumped out at me. I found my bear moulds which I had been using for my forget me not bears which were also popular and that’s when the idea of a courage bear came to me, the bear mould I had is very popular with resin artists and there were lots of them already on etsy so I knew I had to make my bears different. Why should someone buy my bear rather than someone else’s bear.
I had been watching Daniel Cooper videos and he uses a technique called the petri effect and I thought id try it in my bears as I hadn’t seen anyone using that technique in any bears. I absolutely loved how it came out and it made every bear unique.
I had been googling for weeks trying to find a poem to go with the bears but I couldn’t find anything and in a moment of frustration when I was running out of time to get ready for my first market of 2023 I wrote “Sometimes we all need a little courage, rub my belly when you need a little help and I’ll lend you my courage”
I remember at the time thinking that was rubbish as I had forced it and that I could come up with something better later, however people seemed to connect with the simplicity of the words and my courage bears quickly became my biggest seller. I get so much joy from hearing how my little bears have helped people.
Sorry for rambling on but I’m a big marvel/DC fan and I do think a back story is important. This has been longer than I intended but I hope it gave you a little insight into who I am.