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LadyPaua......where did we begin.....

When I think back to where LadyPaua began, I think back to when I first created her persona in my head, but she goes back further than that.  You could even say she goes back to when I was a child and to where my love of art and creating began. 

When I was a child, my mother always told me I had a natural ability and talent for art.  However, this vision of myself as a confident, competent budding artist was dashed when my primary school teacher told me that I was rubbish at art, that I had little or no artistic talent and that I would never amount to anything, because I was too stupid and dumb.  Artistic talent is usually of an intrinsic nature, which means that it comes from within and often has little of no bearing on cognitive intelligence. But not knowing this back then I believed him, especially when later that year I was diagnosed with the learning disorder, Dyslexia.   I now know this not to be true because as I have grown, so have my artistic talents and abilities and I can turn my hand  to anything I put my mind to. But because of one teachers nasty words, I put aside my artistic and creative urges until I was much older....who knows where I would be today had he nurtured and celebrated my talents and abilities instead of criticising them.  

Art, to me, encompasses many abilities, skills and talents.  Art is not just drawing (of which I can safely say I AM good at) it is also design and crafting, working with your hands and creating.  Something that I love doing.   I found my hidden talents again when I was going through University doing my Teaching Degree (early childhood).  It was there that I nurtured my creative talents by making some stunning hand crafted original teaching resources that I still use today when teaching children.  I was not one to just print images off the computer to use as resources....no I had to do it the hard way every time and hand draw each piece as it gave me satisfaction and ownership of that resource.  Once I realised that I was good with my hands and a creator I found every opportunity to foster my passion and follow my heart. 

 I guess the first spark of LadyPaua came when I created and gave a Paua New Zealand to my in-laws and Whānau (family) as presents one Christmas.  I decided, when I got married and took on a whole new family, that I would give handmade gifts to family and friends on special occasions, one because it was cheaper and two because it helped fill a need in me to create. I felt making a gift was more important and personal than buying a gift that would be stuck in a cupboard somewhere hidden away.  Years later after my Whānau had received all manner of creations from me (ones which are still there today adorning their homes I might add), from sea mobiles to Hypertufa pots, to mosaic house numbers, to stone door mats, I came across some New Zealand templates, in my favourite art and craft shop.  I remember staring at them thinking ......"That would look awesome with Paua pieces on it."  Paua is a natural shell native to New Zealand like Abalone except the colours and the hues of the shell are iridescent Blue, Green and Purple.  I have always loved the colours of this shell, so thought this a great idea and brought a template straight away to test it out.  I already had a shimmery iridescent green paint which I coated it with....now all I had to do was source some Paua.  Luckily a friend said that he had been given some that he did not want and I could have that.  This worked so well I was delighted with the end result and hoped that my family and friends would too.  Later I was to source our Paua from the Paua factory over the hill from where we used to live.  Well as you can imagine these were a huge hit with my Whānau and from there I made ourselves a huge New Zealand to put on our wall.  Pretty soon I had friends and friends of friends asking me to create Paua New Zealand's for them.  This is where our journey began.....with Christmas, birthdays and the gift of wanting to give something stunning, original and handmade to family and friends who were celebrating special occasions.  The birth of LadyPaua had begun, but she was still an infant with no name at this stage.

Originally from the small town of Upper Hutt in the lower North Island of New Zealand, we immigrated to Perth, WA, over 5 years ago in search of warmer weather.  It is from here that our story and LadyPaua continues to grow, with new friends, acquaintances and Kiwis living abroad falling in love with our large New Zealand and wanting to give our designs as gifts.  From here we have created more designs, not only with a Kiwi inspired nature but of also pieces with more of a general theme to them. 

As I was toying around with names one day, I remember one of my clients had introduced me as the Paua lady to her friends. This suddenly brought to mind Lady Gaga for some reason and then it hit me.....LadyPaua, I could see her in my head.....she is sophisticated, refined, classy and sexy, timeless and magical, like the goddess of the sea Amphitrite.  She is gorgeous in greens, blues and pearly purples, giving gifts from the sea Toanga (treasure) ..... and so LadyPaua was created. 

Finally by the end of 2015, LadyPaua had a name to call her own.  Her creation means to me that she is now ready to take her first real steps out into the world.  She is still a baby growing and evolving and she will continue to grow and evolve as she makes her mark on the world.  I am excited for what is to come for LadyPaua and know that there are lots of ideas on the horizon for her to experiment with.  So be gentle with my baby, help her to blossom and grow in to a beautiful young lady.