We are a mother and daughter team. Our shared love of stationery led to us starting The Ink Pot in late 2019. At that point we were a 12-year old obsessed with bullet journaling (Eva) and a litigation lawyer (Kirsten) who had forgotten the joys of stationery until reminded by her daughter. It was Eva's idea that we start a business selling high-quality journals because she was sure we could develop some which would be popular and sell well given the difficulty she had encountered finding one she liked. Eva was told her we could do it if she came up with a name and logo - thinking that would put her off - and she promptly came up with The Ink Pot and drew the logo which we use today.

We started small with our Original A5 Dot-Grid journal in five colours. We couldn't believe the reception the journals got at our first sale - they sold out - and we now have a much larger range with A5 and B5 journals, lined and dot-grid, cork-covered journals as well as linen-covered and journals with black, Kraft and white paper: 33 journals in total and a wider range is coming.

There was a concern initially that someone could just come along and copy our journals and I asked Eva what she thought and she suggested we offer to customise journals for people so that they can choose the colour they want, the image they want on the front and the foil colour. It was, in my view, a genius idea for a 12 year-old and she even drew some of the images we use today. Others are drawn by our neighbour, Anne, who is a wonderful artist who illustrates children's books.

Today I manage the business whilst Eva is at school, juggling with the legal business and the three dogs. Eva is the creative brains behind everything we do and I do the stamping, packing and, the best bit, trying out lots of pens on our books!