A Welcome Blog..

Me in my home and some sketchbook doodlings.

A little bit about me and the irregular journey to where I am now.

Hello there and welcome to my first ever blog post! Im nervous but lets go on this wild ride together..

I’m Danni/ Danielle/ Daniel (as my grandad used to call me)/ Spaniel (as my pal used to call me) I’ll take whatever you like. I am an artist, illustrator and designer and owner and creator of Right Hand House, a micro art, design and illustration business located in Newcastle-under-Lyme, Staffordshire.

My Etsy shop is brimming over with botanical, nature and vintage inspired prints, greetings cards, stickers and now (drum rolllllll) TOTE BAGS! I also offer personalised illustrations, namely Botanical Silhouette’s, if these have peaked your interest you can check them out here.

I’m one of those people that never knew what they wanted to do at 16 like the school system thought we all did because I had all the interests under the sun. I specifically remember being sat at the computer with my tutor and attempting to click 20 different areas of work that I liked or could see myself in, so that’ll be a dancing, photograph taking, art making, historian who also likes to sing, play guitar and bake cakes on the side? Is there a place I fit??

The answer to that was no! Heart = broken. I can guarantee I was not the only one, I can only hope that there are not more little Danni’s going through the same thing now, being told to pick a path and stick to it.

So, after pursuing art for a few years, alongside photography and graphic design at college, I quickly came to realise that boys and drink were a thing and my god, I found a new passion! This quickly led me to finding a new college course that could allow me work toward a future career and be this shining socialite I thought I was, so I started a travel and tourism course, what better way to do both than becoming a holiday rep, travelling the world, getting a tan and becoming the extroverted, debutante by brain thought I was.

Turns out, this shy, introverted, nervous little mouse couldn’t hack the constant social exhaustion. So I finished my T&T course and quickly decided to pursue my dancing dream with a scholarship into a local performing arts college. I found a way to be the extrovert I so wanted to be.. by pretending to be someone else, after all, I couldn’t dance, sing and act as me, that would be boring AF.

A few years after graduating and well into my relationship with my now husband, I could feel the passion begin to dwindle and the constant rejection at auditions slowly peeling away all the protective layers id built up around myself. Enter phase 4 (I think) get a decent paying job, move to Leeds, move back from Leeds, buy our first home, get married, have a baby.

Our first son arrived and I felt love and purpose burst out of every pore, along with a lot of mental health issues and unresolved childhood troubles, I quickly learnt that I needed another purpose, for myself and him.

So I picked up a pen.

And a sketchbook.

Opened an instagram account.

Went into a global pandemic.

Got furloughed.

Drew and drew and drew and drew, whilst looking after my son.

I worked before he woke up, when he napped, when he went to bed and by worked I mean created artwork to sell in my Etsy shop, created marketing content for Instagram, created logos and bits of branding for small businesses, created personalised illustrations. The artist in me bursting out of my seams.

Then our daughter arrived and more love and purpose took hold of me like a vice andI hereby created the epic 2021 battle of Mother vs Creator. We still don’t know who’s winning, it’s an ongoing battle but stay tuned to find out.

Alongside all the imposter syndrome of “You didn’t go to university, you can’t call yourself an artist”, “How do you know what your style is if you didn’t study”, “No ones going to choose you over the thousands of other better and more established artists” I just judo chopped those barriers out the way. They come back almost everyday and sometimes they’re tricky little suckers to get rid of but I keep at it.

And so, my fellow life ponderers, there’s my back story. A big ol’ jumble of; don’t know what im doing, I’ve found my path, oh wait that wasn’t it, merry go round. But do you know what, I’m finally in a position where I can say, I really didn’t need to worry about not finding one path in life, because in all the searching and living, it found me and its stuck. It may change in a few years but that doesn’t mean I’ve failed, it just means my interests, loves and passions have changed and evolved just like I have. You can’t honestly say you’re the same person you were 10 years ago can you?

Peace, love and cake ✌️

Danni

RHH xx

P.S - From my little home studio in Newcastle-under-Lyme, Staffordshire, I create all my artwork that is stocked in my Etsy shop, including prints, greetings cards, stickers and now tote bags. I also offer personalised illustrations of forever moments. Head over and check what’s available here if you have a birthday, anniversary, new baby event to buy for. I also now offer my cards and prints wholesale, you can request a copy of wholesale catalogue or check out my Faire account. Keep your eyes peeled for my wedding stationery, set to be unveiled by the end of 2022, fingers crossed!