Welcome to today’s blog fellow creative’s and readers – an honest review of the pattern design Immersion Course!
Today I wanted to share with you my experience of taking Bonnie Christine’s Immersion while juggling two other businesses and family life. With two kids under 5 and a very needy, cuddly dog I don’t think anyone could say my life was quiet at the time!
Immersion is as the name suggests somewhat immersive.
As someone completely new to surface design I was looking to improve my skills and so I was super excited to take on the challenge. For me Immersion held the hope of crafting a new career but if nothing else would hopefully better my design skills for my current album design business. Despite my excitement, I was also rather nervous about how I would manage to fit it all in.
But, despite my reservations, I dove headfirst into the course, and boy was it great! Through it all, I learned a lot about myself and my capabilities, and I came out the other side feeling more confident, excited and ready to take on a new career.
In this post I will be sharing my experiences, insights and tips for other busy mums who may be considering taking the Immersion course. I’ll give you an honest, lighthearted look at what it’s like to balance work, family and education, and as always, I hope that my journey can inspire and motivate you to take on your own challenges.
So grab a cup of tea (or coffee, or wine – no judgement here!) sit back and let’s dive in.
How I discovered the Immersion course?
As some of you may know by now, before I found surface design, I was (and still am) running an album and memory book design business. My biggest frustration was designing the end pages for these albums, and not knowing how to create a repeat pattern. Instead, I had to create a roughly 60 cm pattern by eye. I know most people don’t actually know what an endpage is so let me explain. An endpage is a blank or decorative sheet of paper that is attached to the inside cover of a book (usually hardback), and typically comes before the title page.
Anyway, back to me. There I was running my album design business, and also a holiday let – ironing sheets, managing bookings, cleaning. For anyone who hasn’t experienced it, it’s a lot more work than you would imagine. And then I was being Mum to my two littlies, and fur baby, when suddenly life as I knew it got snuffed out and I was sent to isolate in my room for 10 days while I recovered from Covid.
Covid was awful but once I’d got over the worst of it, I had some very unusual and dare I say it, gloriously quiet me time while locked away. It was here that I first became aware of Bonnie Christine, I think a Facebook ad popped up, and I immediately signed up to one of her free workshops. That was it, I was hooked. Having taken her free workshop and followed a guide to creating a repeat pattern I knew this was going to solve my endpage problems. Not only that, a new world had opened up, surface design was a thing, and I’d potentially be able to use it on so much more than just my albums!
So how did I juggle it all?
I’m a determined person, and although I was scared about how I’d fit it all in, I also went into Immersion telling myself that it didn’t matter if I fell behind because I had lifetime access to the course and could finish it whenever I wanted. That said, it soon became clear to me that you make time for the things you love.
Every spare moment I had was spent following the course. My daughter’s nap times became sacred (please darling, sleep for more than 20 minutes!) and my television evenings disappeared. Luckily my husband is an avid gamer and was more than happy to say goodbye to evenings with his beloved wife, in order to sit at his computer and get involved in whatever World of Warcraft (or whatever game it is) shenanigans were happening at the time.
My Tuesday evenings were given over to Zoom meet ups with the amazing group of ladies that had been assigned as part of my study group (an optional extra of the course – and one that I am so grateful for!) So my day to day routine went like this:
- 3 mornings a week – album design while my daughter was at nursery, (the other two mornings are part of full days with her home, something I wouldn’t change for the world)
- Nap times – Immersion, following the course and creating art for my patterns,
- Afternoons – playing with my daughter, school run to pick up my son and whatever holiday let tasks needed to be done.
- Evenings – Immersion/album design
And somehow, I managed to get it all done. Yes there were late nights, and lots of Turmeric tea (I don’t drink coffee – it gives me heart palpatations!) but with the help of the Implementation weeks I managed to not only get it done, but also to keep up and make new friends along the way!
What I learnt?
Well apart from the obvious – learning Illustrator from scratch (I use InDesign for my albums) and how to create a repeat pattern I also learnt some life lessons.
- You really do make time for the things you love. If you aren’t making the time for it, then perhaps you don’t love it as much as you think you do.
- There is a wonderful community of supportive creatives out there, all of whom are willing to cheer you on.
- A study group with the right people, is a wonderful way to learn, stretch yourself and a great way to find some accountability.
- It might be cliché, but as Bonnie often says “There is room for you”. Looking at some of the examples Bonnie shared of successful artists it really did become clear that if you want too, and are willing to put in the work, then you can do this too. It might not be quick, but you can get there, you just need to put in the steps, find your tribe of supporters and your ideal customers! Everyone has different taste and there will be people out there who love your work.
And on a more personal note, I also learnt just how much I had been missing being creative. Designing albums doesn’t quite get the juices flowing in the same way as getting my sketchbook out and drawing/creating patterns. It also became clear how much I do actually juggle and provided clarity on what I want my life to look like going forward. It sounds a bit too crazy getting that from a surface pattern design course but the lessons where Bonnie encourages you to think about the future and ‘your why’ really did open up my mind.
Oh and I also learnt that my husband can iron (sort of). He was brilliant at stepping up and taking on some of the things that I would usually do, and by doing that, provided a much needed support.
What more would I have liked from the course?
Well Immersion did everything it promised – I came out of the course ready to call myself a pattern designer and to take the next steps on this creative journey. I also now knew I’d be creating some excellent endpages!! That said, if there was anything else I would have liked to learn, it would have been how to create more complex and more traditional patterns. I love Arts and Crafts and would have loved to come out knowing how to put together a pattern in that style. That’s it. The only other thing I would have loved to learn.
Taking on the Immersion course was definitely a challenge given my other commitments, but one that was well worth it. Through this experience, I learned a lot about myself, my capabilities and the importance of following a dream through education and personal growth. Although balancing work, family and education wasn’t always easy, I found that with the right mindset and support, it was more than possible to achieve my goals and come out stronger on the other side.
So if like me you are someone with very little time, and lots of things calling on it, but are looking to expand your skillset and take on new challenges, I encourage you to follow your calling. If you are wondering whether you can manage the Immersion course, I think you absolutely can. With determination, grit and bit of humour, you can achieve great things and take your dream that step closer to being a reality.