It struck me the other day that's its over 12 years since I graduated. Scary stuff. I did a degree in Decorative Arts at Nottingham Trent. It was a brand new course and to be honest, I think we suffered because of this. The course was finding its feet and certainly lacked direction. (But I hear its a really good course now!!) Before doing this course I had always loved textiles and presumed this was the route I would take. But then I was faced with so many other options and mediums to try, I kind of moved away from textiles. This is a massive regret as I think I always enjoyed this most and was much better at this than many of the things I tried. Anyway, somehow I ended up specialising in wood and paper!! Looking back now I am not sure how I came to this conclusion and I suppose its a bit of a regret.
Needless to say I left college more confused and directionless than when I started. I then didn't do everything creative for about 10 years. Then a couple of years ago I taught myself to knit (with a little help from my fella). It was great to do something creative and this lead to me signing up to a textiles course. And that was it really. My creativeness was back and I haven't stopped since. (I do have 10 years to catch up on).
I certainly don't mean to sound bitter about my degree, it was good in many ways. The people I met on this course being the best thing. There is still a group of about 8 of us who are still good friends and met up as much as we can.
Over the past few years some of them have also started their own little creative businesses, and I am sure some others will too. So its taken us all a while to get started,but we are getting there, and its all very exciting.
Liz Crowcroft - http://lizcrowcroft.synthasite.com/ Liz makes beautiful textiles pieces and wonderful personalised picture for children and adults.
Pinnikity -http://www.folksy.com/shops/pinnikity Nikki has just opened a Folksy shop selling the most gorgeous aprons and she promises to expand into other kitchen textiles soon. I can't wait. 
Pink Cocca - http://www.pinkcocoa.co.uk/ Sarah has always been fantastic at making cakes. She made me a wonderful cake for my 21st birthday, and also gave me the 2 pages of design sheets. So I don't think any of us were surprised when she said she was starting a cake business!
