Name:
Donna Enticknap
Business
Name: Little Vagaries
Location:
Bournemouth
Regular
Markets: No regular markets, but I’ll be at a craft fair at Lulubelle’s
tearooms in Canford Cliffs on December 8th.
// Tell us a
little bit about what you do.
I make illustrations, highly detailed, very small scale and
intricate, and hopefully with a sense of narrative.... pictures which focus on
animals and the natural world. A lot of my work is black and white, but I also
paint with different varieties of tea, which gives a nice range of tones and
colours. I also make hand-illustrated stones, and dabble in papercuts and
print-making.
// Where does
your inspiration come from?
Maps, distant lands, old stories. A lot of my inspiration
comes from folk tales, poetry, or song lyrics.. the poems of Loren Eiseley and
Wallace Stevens had a big influence on a lot of my recent work. Nature too..
walks in the woods, or along the beach, camping trips, the view from my window.
There’s a family of foxes that was visiting my garden over the summer, and that
was just perfect, getting to see them daily and study their habits.
And if I’m feeling stunted, my favourite place to go is the
forest, or for long car journeys as a passenger so I can look out the window,
always one of my favourite cures for creative block.
// When did you
start your business?
What I do is not really a business.. but I started selling
my work back in 2008 when I opened my Etsy shop
// Where does
the name come from?
// Did you
undertake any training in your craft or are you self-taught?
My parents taught me to draw when I was very young, and I
studied art for GCSE, A level, a foundation course at Bournemouth and Poole
College of Art and Design (now known as the AUB). Everything else, I’ve learned
along the way. At the moment I’m starting to teach myself print making, just
got the tools to start woodblock printing, and I’ve been experimenting with
cyanotype. Trial and error. I would also love to learn how to animate.... that’s
something I wish I had studied, but let’s see how far I get.
// What was the
first thing you ever sold and how did it make you feel?
The first thing I sold was a print of my drawing
“Guardians”. It was a giclee print that I had hand-embellished with gold ink
details, and I was very proud of it. It went off to the United States, and that
made me happy, to think of my little world, travelling across the bigger world.
// Do you have
any advice for other crafters just starting out?
Just create, as
much as you can. Do something every day, no matter how small. Break your
boundaries, make mistakes, and push yourself. I’d like to think I take my own
advice, but I forget it sometimes. I am learning, and trying to live and work
more deliberately.
// What’s your
favourite thing about Dorset?
Mainly, its age and history. I love folklore and mythology,
and we have a lot of that in the south of England.. pookas and boggarts, the
Wild Hunt.. But also the landscape; the
Purbeck coast, the vastness of the New Forest, the tiny country roads and
fields around Knowlton Church and Sixpenny Handley.... It’s a beautiful part of
the world.
// What could
you not live without?
My husband, and my cats.
And music.
And books.
// If you could
eat anything right now what would you eat?
Pancakes. Or cheese.
// And finally,
do you have any exciting plans coming up for your business? Any inside scoops you can share with us? The
last couple of weeks I was in Florida, I started work on a new range of silk
scarves with my foxes, and some hares, using flora that I found in the
Floridian garden. I’m also planning to work on a new series of tea-stain
drawings, possibly of Dorset landmarks. We’ll see.
