We’re always envious of our Makers’ ability to follow their dreams and turn their passion and creativity into a business, but everyone discovers their calling in a different way. Ashley Davis of Maybe Sparrow Designs explains the path she took that ultimately led her to becoming a Maker.
Ashley: I took my first photography class back in high school, and took one additional class while going to design school, but it was always a hobby until a few years ago. I have always had that special “eye” for things, but it never dawned on me that I should turn it into something more until I was getting one of my photographs enlarged and the employees were commenting on how beautiful the photograph was, and saying that they’d buy it if it was for sale. I started taking a lot more photographs and experimenting after that, and things just kept going from there.
I had gone to college for a year in Portland, Oregon, and wasn’t sure what I wanted to do with my life — I was having an existential crisis for most of my twenties when it came to that. I left Portland and moved down to San Francisco pretty much on a whim after my roommate told me that I’d be good at graphic design. I ended up going to school for graphic design for about a year and a half when I decided it wasn’t for me. It wasn’t that the design part wasn’t for me, just the learning it in a classroom part. I stopped doing design for a few years and have only picked it up in the last year and a half. I guess I am mostly “self-taught” because I had to pick up everything all over again and like my photography, it’s all been trial and error and a lot of experimenting.
[Right now] I work full time as a pediatric RN — it’s been a challenge to maintain my “day job” and my business both full time, but I know it will pay off in the end! I hope to “retire” from nursing by the end of the year and expand my business in 2014.
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