Colbea helped convince Janette Lazell that her skills and passion for art and design could become a successful career.
Janette has always been passionate about art, attending evening classes in subjects as diverse as calligraphy, upholstery and garden design, even winning coveted medals at Hampton Court and Chelsea Flower Shows in 2002, 2003 and 2004. She went on to do a degree in 3D Art and Design at Colchester School of Art and Design but it was after she had attended a course on blacksmithing that she knew she had found her niche.
Janette was well aware, however, that a passion does not always turn readily into a career and was nervous about setting up in business when she approached Colbea. She says: “Business scared me but I think that if something is holding you back you have to make yourself deal with it. The Step Into Business course at Colbea was broken down into sections and seemed more manageable.”
In fact, Janette was starting out on a solid footing having spent her final college year setting up her website, preparing promotional materials, searching for premises and developing contacts – always important at the start of a new venture.
Janette’s designs hark back to her garden design training. The beautiful metal plant supports she produces came out of a frustration of having to support herbaceous plants in her own garden with unsightly canes and other objects. Because each piece is individual, Janette was keen to protect her designs from being copied. Registering Design Rights for every piece was unrealistic due to cost but she discovered that she could log her designs on the ACID’s (Anti-Copying in Design) database to prove the ideas had originated from her.
At the end of 2009, Janette was offered a place on a Graduate Award scheme, which is awarded to a third year degree student at the end of their degree and is a result of a collaboration (begun in 2003) between The Colchester Institute School of Art and Design and Cuckoo Farm Studios – a space where artists each have their own studio and can work independently. This gave Janette not only a limited period of free premises but also provided a grant towards materials and the chance to exhibit her work at The Minories Gallery in Colchester. She has also exhibited her work at the famous Sir Harold Hillier Gardens.
Today, Janette attends exhibitions and shows and uses her website – professionally designed and built by LeoPrint (www.leoprint.co.uk) – to publicise her work to a larger audience. Word of mouth plays a huge part in obtaining new commissions and who could be anything other than thrilled with the beautiful designs to grace gardens year round.
For more information go to www.janettelazell.co.uk
