We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Ellen Burford a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Alright, Ellen thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Earning a full time living from one’s creative career can be incredibly difficult. Have you been able to do so and if so, can you share some of the key parts of your journey and any important advice or lessons that might help creatives who haven’t been able to yet?
Like many other, I took my business full time during the pandemic. Leather work had been a hobby for years and the break from my office job in tech really clarified that I was ready to jump into my own small business full time. While I have loved the freedom Windy Raven has given me, I underestimated the amount of time, work, and grit, building the business would take. I am still learning how to establish a health work/life balance; finding that balance is so restorative and invigorating for me in life and my art. Windy Raven grew organically, I started slow by going to art and farmers markets around my area while I built a website. I was very lucky to have friends who had also built their own small businesses from the ground up that were able to lend me equipment and advise. Without the knowledge they shared, growth would have been slower and harder. Over the past few years, I have been able to go to larger art shows, become more selective about the shops that I partner with to sell my art, and only take on the custom work I am drawn to create. I am fortunate to be working as a leather craftsman full time and able to earn a living.
Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.
I grew up in upstate New York and went to college in New York and New Hampshire. While I loved the east coast, something was pulling me towards the west. After graduating from the University of New Hampshire with a degree in Outdoor Education and Program Management, I moved to Yellowstone National Park. I lived and worked in the park for half a year and knew that I had found where I belonged. I moved to Bozeman, Montana and met my now husband, Aaron, and we got married in an alpine meadow. I worked with outdoor programs and later settled into office jobs. However, I felt unfulfilled. I had taken my time in college, and had at one point studied art education and sculpture. I took up leather work as a hobby and creative outlet. When I decided to take my business full time, it was a dream I didn’t know I had; returning to working with my hands and in a creative way. My leather work has evolved as my confidence has grown. Five years ago, I built only basic leather goods. While these were functional and durable goods, they were not expressing me as an individual or as an artist. I was given some basic leather carving tools from my father-in-law and that was the spark. Carving leather and incorporating my own art changed the business completely, at first it made me feel vulnerable but now it feels liberating.
Carving leather is a slow process that starts with drawing the art and planning the process. Much like sculpture, many of the hammer strikes are unforgiving and permanent. After hundreds of knife cuts and hammer strikes comes one of my favorite steps, the dye and color process. I use the leather dyes like watercolor and no two pieces ever turn out the same, which is an aspect that I love. After the art is complete, I sew each purse, wallet or journal by hand. Hand sewing is a slower process, but it is a more durable finish. I want the pieces I create to be functional art that will last for years!
Is there mission driving your creative journey?
What drives me the most is finding a purpose in my life. I felt like I was watching my life slip by me and that I wasn’t doing anything of true value. Working a traditional job was making a living, but I didn’t find it fulfilling. I didn’t want to wake up twenty years from now and feel like I had missed an opportunity. About ten years ago, my husband and I decided to veer away from the American dream, we downsized our home and possessions, and traded our town lifestyle for a small one room cabin with more land out in the Montana high desert area. Every day the nature that surrounds my home inspires me draw new carving designs. In the summer time, it’s sipping coffee on the back porch while looking out at deer, elk, turkeys, and ravens and in the winter time, it’s going cross country skiing on our land and returning to a warm cabin heated by wood stove. I can’t see another house from my home; many days, I may not see another person all day, besides my husband. The solitude of our property, and simple lifestyle we have chosen, allows me to focus on my art with limited distractions and creating art has given me a sense of purpose and so much more drive to become more than I was last year or even yesterday. I wake up excited to get to carve leather every day. While creating art doesn’t earn as much money, being an artist has granted me a much more gratifying and rewarding life and I am grateful for that every day.
We often hear about learning lessons – but just as important is unlearning lessons. Have you ever had to unlearn a lesson?
Growing up, I was told that art couldn’t be a career. I was told to get a degree in something that could give me a future and a steady income. So many people were led to believe you had to establish a career in which you would work for your entire adult life. I went to college and quit just before finishing a degree in art education and then returned years later to complete a degree in outdoor education and program administration. After years of working traditional jobs, I decided to forge my own path in my small business and art has been a big part of it. I had to unlearn that I need to follow the rules or follow a set path in life. Art makes me happy, non-traditional carved leather makes me happy, not working a 9-5 job makes me happy.
I had to learn to prioritize my own happiness. I had to learn that some rules need to be broken, this has really helped me develop my own identity as an artist.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.windyraven.com
- Instagram: @windyravenleather
Image Credits
No Studio Required Photography