Life Before Storeyshop

Every time I travel down by train to Sussex to visit my parents, I promise them that next time I have a car with me, I'll take some more of my stuff. I still seem to have quite a lot of stuff in their spare room and loft cupboards (I have a lot of stuff generally as I'm not very good at parting with old things). Anyway, when we were there a few weeks ago, we finally filled the car with lots of old art books and folders and brought them up north. Lucky Dave!

So, for a couple of weeks, I have been dusting off massive 'A' Level and Art Foundation portfolios and flicking through university sketchbooks. The portfolio work is a bit cringe-worthy, to be honest (very smudgey charcoal life drawings, anyone?), but the sketchbooks are quite fun. I didn't really realise how much papercutting I had done while at uni. I used to love using neon colours and I think half the reason for this was that, as I couldn't print the flouros, I just HAD to get my scalpel out and cut the typography or design by hand. An intricate time-consuming task was always much more inspiring to me (and still is) than staring at Photoshop or Illustrator with an idea in my head that I was pretty much guaranteed to end up having to change because I didn't have the tech skills to actually create it.

So, some of the history behind Storeyshop is revealed: A lack of computer skills, a passion for old-fashioned, hands-on processes and a dread of having to grow up and get a job where I wouldn't need a pencil case, with a ruler and a rubber in, at all times.




















The last quote is a famous one that my Granddad used to say. I always hate it when people randomly say things like, 'Smile, love' just because you're not grinning away, but Grandad was always allowed.

My 'ideas list' is even longer now after going through my old designs. Apart from papercutting, I also liked felt tips. Maybe I'll bring them back out?