It is going to sound terribly cliche but I have always been a creative person, as a child I made knotted friendship bracelets and attended craft fairs with my godmother who let me sell my creations on her stall when I was old enough to wander into town myself. During these events I discovered a bead shop though at the time I didn't realise how much of an impact this would have on me later down the line.

While in college I found I needed a little extra cash, I found myself back in bead shops and discovered how to make strung jewellery and simple wire-wrapped pieces. Still, as this was a bit before the rise of internet shopping when I went to craft fairs I found locally everyone was making jewellery and all had pretty much the same beads. So I began to search for a way to make my jewellery unique, I tried making polymer clay beads but that wasn't for me! An American friend suggested lampwork to me and so I turned to my husband and said I wanted (what essentially was) a flame thrower. The response at the time was "We have a 2-year-old, that seems dangerous" but I didn't give in and planned out how I could make it safe. Christmas 2009, he bought me a small starter kit with the intention it could all go in a lockable toolbox at the end of each day. The toolbox was never purchased!

The first time I melted glass in the flame I was overjoyed. This was it, this is what I wanted to do. Slowly I learnt more and eventually stopped making jewellery out of my handmade beads so I could just focus on making the beads. Then in 2013, I found out we were having our daughter, and I had to stop for a bit (mostly because I couldn't reach the torch for my belly) when I returned to glass I wanted to do more. I changed direction slightly and relaunched and it was the best decision I ever made.

Now I'm proud to own an award-winning business, I have pieces in a museum exhibition on sustainability and got to attend the International Festival of Glass as a demoing artist. My work has also taken me to the glass capital of the world - Murano where I got to melt glass in a full hotshop.

My husband and daughter (son has now flown the nest) travel around with me, we see beautiful areas of the UK and spend the weekends working at shows. If we can ever figure out how to fit a studio on a narrow boat we're going to buy one.