Christmas for several people is indeed the most wonderful time of the year but so too are birthdays, baby showers, weddings, anniversaries, engagements, and special holidays and occasions.
Paula Williams, the creative director of P.K Designs, knows this all too well and she is often busy with her Whimsical by P.K designs greeting cards which add just the right touch to those moments.
She was not always into making cards even though she was into art and structural designs from a young age.
Williams told the BARBADOS BUSINESS AUTHORITY it was after losing her job at an engineering firm that she used her love for art and being creative to start the business.
“Whimsical came up unexpectedly in that it wasn’t something I mapped out. P.K. Designs came about because I ended up losing my job at the beginning of this economic recession. I decided to work for myself and consult and ended up with consulting mostly exclusively for one firm so that worked out okay.
“One year around Christmas time I said, ‘Oh shoot, things tight. I can’t buy any gifts. Let me try to make some really nice greeting cards for friends and family and give them out’. One or two people saw me doing them because I had asked the firm that I worked with if I could utilise a small area to do them.
“One person asked if I was selling them because they looked really nice and I said ‘I guess I could’. Then more than one person started to ask and I kind of fell into it,” she said with a laugh.
The creative designer said it is not only the work that goes into the cards that pleases her but the response from the clients when they are “way more than they anticipated”, or the person they gave it too “absolutely fell in love with it”.
“There are no words to explain the feeling that you get from that,” she added.
Each card is handmade, made to order and Williams applies the glitter and other aspects. She also has to ensure that each one is structurally sound and that it would survive shipping or hanging as necessary.
They can take between an hour to 90 minutes to produce and while she might be able to accept a last-minute order she prefers to have at least a week’s notice for the cards which start at $10 and can go to $50 or more depending on what is required.
For the Christmas season she has seven designs, some traditional, and there is one Island Bliss, which has a Caribbean feel that was inspired by an Irish friend.
“I really like doing [cards]. For me art and creativity is almost my life. It has helped me through a whole lot. I have a chronic condition as well …and it’s not an easy thing to deal with. Over the years my art has really helped me through that process. I don’t see it as hard work as I totally enjoy it,” Williams said. (Green Bananas Media)
