All language subtitles for I.Made.it.at.Market.S01E04.540p.WEB.x264-NGP-CEsubs

Our country is full of incredible makers
dreaming of turning their talent...

into money -making careers.

It would mean everything to be able to
do this full -time.

So, with a team of fantastic
professional mentors... I know your

know what you're capable of doing.

I run a one -of -a -kind bootcamp
showing them how to do just that.

Perfect. My proudest moment. I'll go
share that. Yes.

Now, I'm on my way to catch up with
those who have made their dreams come

Hello. There he is. Hello, mate.

I'll be hearing about their amazing
achievements.

I've been able to put down...

And finding out how much money they're
making.

A little bit under £40 ,000.

Around £50 ,000. £50 ,000? Yeah. So join
me and meet the fabulous makers who

have transformed their lives and made it
at market.

You can kind of say I'm living the
dream.

I think that's fair to say.

Creative makers from all across the UK
come to my bootcamp hoping to turn their

fantastic talents into life -changing
businesses.

And today, we're meeting two who have
done just that.

Later, we'll head to Wiltshire to hear
all about Woodturner Lucinda's

international success.

I've had people collect my work all over
the world and people recognise me as

the brush lady and, you know, it's quite
something.

But first, I'll be checking in with
blacksmith Alex in Northumberland, who's

success beyond his wildest dreams.

I never thought I would have ever seen
that sort of money. With the best will

the world, I do work like six days a
week and like ten hours a day. Don't get

wrong, you deserve every penny of it,
but that is a lot of money.

I first met Alex in the spring of 2022,
when he came to my boot camp with big

ambitions, but a bit of a confidence
problem.

I struggle a lot with, like, imposter
syndrome. I get... I look at my work and

think... I just see the mistakes.

I look at something and I've poured
hours and hours and hours of work into

something and I still see little fault
lines and things and I think, oh, I

put another five hours in and fix this,
fix that, and I'd go way over budget and

I undercharge and things and, I don't
know, I feel like I could use a pep

To help Alex build his confidence and a
thriving blacksmithing business... I

teamed him up with Adrian Wood.

Adrian's been running a successful forge
in the Tees Valley for over 20 years.

Coincidentally, they had met before at
one of his blacksmithing workshops,

Alex first fell in love with the craft.

Eight years ago now, he came on one of
our blacksmithing courses, and fantastic

to see that he's still got that fire
burning bright inside him, and he's

got the passion to continue doing what
he's doing.

To work out how best to boost Alex's
sales and profits, I set him three

challenges. First up, I asked him to
make a volume piece, something he could

make quickly and sell for an affordable
price.

He decided to forge a Chinese dragon's
head.

Priced at £100, it featured twisted
horns, which could become the decorative

part of a door handle or fire dog.

Job one was splitting one end of a piece
of steel, before pulling it apart to

create what would become the horns.

I'm wanting to take a partial heat on
the very, very bottom of the bar, and

going to take a twist here, twist it
that way, twist it this way to get a

sort of water -quenched twist. I think
they look fantastic.

They fit as well very nicely with the
ethos of, like, a Chinese dragon, you

know? I mean, every time I look at
artwork, they've always got these

long, flowing, cloud -like whiskers and
horns and things.

Twisting the steel was a high -risk part
of the production.

Clamping it in the base.

If Alex allowed the metal to become too
cold, it could snap.

Oh, dear.

That was too cold.

So this is what I was worried about
happening.

If you can't quite see the colours of
what's going on there, you can't gauge

temperature. It's just due to the
ambient light of being outdoors. So I've

-twisted that ever so slightly. It's
fractured off. So I'm going to cut this

off, start again.

Whilst Alex restarted his volume piece,
I sat down with Adrian to talk about his

second challenge.

Before he arrived at my boot camp, I
asked Alex to make a high -end piece,

something carrying a heftier price tag.

He brought along a replica of a Viking
horse's bridle, priced at £850.

It's fantastically made. He's done a
really good job. The design style's

There's a few elements within it that I
had a little concern with. It's only on

the inside of the bridle where it
touches the horse's face. He could do

something where it's not a sharp point
on the end. Do you think it's worth

Personally, I think it's worth more.

Really? I think he said it was about
five days' work.

So you're looking at maybe 1 ,500
pounds. It's a great -looking piece. You

want to undersell yourself.

Back at the forge, Alex had created the
twisted horns for his dragon's head on a

new piece of steel... ..and put a cut in
the steel bar so that he could fold it

over to create a face.

I've got my cut in place, and I'm now
about to do the fold -over.

But before I do that, I need to make
sure that there's nothing that's going

get trapped inside where the weld's
going to lie.

So I'm going to give it a good
scrubbing, then fold it over.

Alex worked quickly, and his next step
was to weld the folded pieces together.

I've done this a hundred times before,
Alex, so you know what you're doing.

breathe.

Take it easy.

You've got it.

Now, whilst the heat's in the top there,
I'm going to start by bellying it out

down like that.

And now there, I've given him a little
bit of an eye socket as well. So in

that, just putting those two little sets
in and a little bit of drag on the

nose. His nose has came down a bit more,
and he's got some nice little areas

where I can start working the eyes into
it as well.

Well done, Alex. Nailed it. Nice one.

Once he finished the eyes, Alex made his
dragon a beard.

Then focused on the finer details of the
eyes and eyebrows.

It was precise work with little room for
error.

I've got his eyebrows in and I'm more or
less happy with them. They're okay.

I want to get a heat right there so I
can just yark his head down a little bit

and give him a little bit of character.

With the bar at just the right
temperature, Alex bent the neck.

Alex's decorative dragon's head had a
make time of around four hours.

He priced it at £100, but that was
before he'd fashioned it into a sellable

like a door handle or knocker.

The level of fine detail is really quite
impressive, and the patience that

you've got to do that is incredible.

The concern is how much time you've
spent doing all that detail.

Does that equate to being able to make a
profit?

What do you think of the price point?
For the work involved, I think it's

cheaper than it maybe should be.

I think it should be, as a concept
piece, absolutely great, but if you want

make that into something else, you've
got to bring that time down.

Alex had to work on both his speed of
production and the pricing of his first

two items.

For his final task, I asked him to make
his favourite piece to discover if what

he enjoyed making most could also bring
in big sales.

He chose to make a Viking -style pattern
-welded knife, priced at £480, which

he'd made before for members of re
-enactment societies.

He began by creating a billet, a metal
block made from layers of different

strength steel alloys welded together.

Having cleaned it, he added flux, a
powder that helped protect the weld from

being contaminated by oxygen in the air.

I just want to be extra careful, keep as
much flux on there as I can, and keep

as much air out. Because if air gets in,
then the scale will form in between the

layers, which will cause the laminations
in the weld, which is where it all

falls apart.

And that's where I just sit there and
debate my life choices.

After making sure the block of steel
alloys was properly welded together...

Alex hammered it into one long piece,
cut it into four bits, then twisted two

them to create part of the knife's final
pattern, before finally hammering them

flat and welding them all back together
again.

Alex, how are we doing? What stage are
we at? Pretty much ready to go into the

oil quench and then temper.

You're very confident with your
processes.

How would you feel about going out to a
market and selling these things, and

more importantly, selling yourself?

I feel very uncomfortable talking about
money, if I'm honest with you. All

you've got to do is just sell the brand.

People go to these markets, Alex,
because they want to see beautiful

if you can provide that for them, just
be chill with it.

So you're confident you can get this
done and dusted? Oh, it'll be done,

be done.

Fantastic. I'll let you get on with it.

I'm cultivating a gentle heat.

along the blade, and we're going to
quench it in some oil, and that will

the blade right up.

Okay.

And... And... That's gone

very well.

With the knife shape created, Alex
applied the finishing touches.

It'll be onto the grinder, and getting
it all nice and smoothed out, and then

sanding it up.

polishing and polishing and polishing
and polishing and polishing, and then it

gets cleaned once I've got it really,
really mirror shiny with acetone just to

get any grease and grit off, and then
it's into the acid tank to pull the

pattern out.

The acid reacted with the twisted metal
and different strength steel alloys in

the knife to create the pattern.

With a make time of around 13 hours,
Alex gave it a price tag of £480.

Absolutely brilliant. You've done a
cracking job. Really, really good job.

really pleased. You've blown me away
with the patterning on that. Thank you.

What do you think of the price point? It
sounds a big figure, but the amount of

work that goes into it, the people that
will probably get that are probably more

like collectors.

It was a real pleasure sharing Alex's
passion for his craft. And as he set off

back to Northumberland, we gave him an
action plan to help him build a

successful, sustainable business.

First, he needed to speed up the pace at
which he produced his work,

particularly his volume pieces.

Next, Adrian wanted him to fix his
prices and charge what his work was

Finally, he needed to sell himself and
his pieces with confidence.

For the next eight weeks, Alex was
guided by Adrian as he set to work on

action plan, and he began by focusing on
speeding up the production of some

potential new volume pieces.

This one here, that thing I wanted to
try out, it's very, very rough at the

minute because it was like a 30 -minute
job, but I will figure out how to do it

faster and neater as well.

Got a little leaf coming on one end, and
there's a little tulip bud coming up on

the other. I'd quite like to make the
tulip bud much wider at the tip there.

He also worked hard trying to turn his
dragon's head into a completed sellable

piece. I have been doing dragons and
dragons and dragons and dragons, trying

get them right, trying to speed the
process up, playing around with a few

different patterns. They've come out
quite nicely. I'm really quite pleased

several of them. They seem to be looking
nice. My idea is that they would want

to be riveted onto a door instead of
screwed in.

I've gotten faster at making them, which
is what I wanted.

Alex embraced our suggestions and gave
them his all. And after two months of

hard work, he had some great news to
share with us.

Most income over the past month or so
has been about £2 ,800.

That's a short amount of time.

That'll improve your confidence.

Fantastic. Well done.

Alex had to take off his costs from his
terrific sales.

that he'd made some big strides forwards
with his business.

It's now over three and a half years
since I first met him. Time really does

fly. And I've come to Northumberland to
hear about how he's been building a

successful business.

Alex. Oh, how are you? How are you
doing?

How are you doing?

Good to see you. Oh, lovely to see you,
mate. Do you want to come on in? I'd

love to. Come on in then.

As a metal worker myself, I know you
need a proper workspace and the right

equipment to run a business.

And Alex's setup looks fantastic.

I'm blown away.

What an amazing space.

I mean, the equipment is very
impressive. I'm very jealous of some of

in here.

But it's not just that. This just feels
like a proper setup now.

Yes. Even down to the mezzanine, the
little shoe. It looks like a shop up

I can see display cases. I wanted to
make a workshop that when people walked

they went, ah.

This is the business.

I'm in the right place. Yeah.

I'll admit, I'm pretty envious of Alex's
layout and kit. And it's time to find

out exactly how well things are going.

This is all looking great, but how's the
business working out?

It's going really well.

Is it?

I started teaching a few years ago. I've
been running blacksmithing workshops

and things for people. I do them in two
different ways.

I do public courses.

I do beginners' kitchen knife -making
ones. I do axe -making, hammer -making,

forging your own tools like tongs and
chisels.

The other aspect is private experiences,
and that could be for a team -building

exercise, for a stag do or a hen do,
birthday parties.

They must be really fun days.

Oh, they're brilliant.

Fantastic jokes.

Everybody's having a grand time.

Courses are a great way of bringing
money into a business.

And Alex's prices range from £165 per
person for a one -day beginner's

to £395 per person for a two -day
Damascus knife one.

The teaching and the courses that you do
here sounds brilliant.

But do you still have time to work on
your own projects?

Through the summer period, teaching
tends to slag off.

I do commissions constantly throughout
the year as well. That sort of helps top

up my wage.

Over the past few years, I've done work
for Beamish Museum, helping them restore

iron components to go on to various
buildings, most recently the 1950s

I've done a fair bit of work for Bambera
Castle, restoring bits of ironwork and

making new pieces of ironwork to match
in with the collection.

Brilliant. This sounds like a win -win.
You're doing something that you love.

love that you want it to do and it's i
think the courses and the commission

sounds like they are keeping things
afloat financially paying the rent

the gas bill this is a dream come true
for you i'm so happy for you thank you

yeah big commissions and busy courses
it's a winning combination and as

such an important part of his business
i'm going to try out one of alex's

workshops for myself we're going to
start off making our little birds you

see i've roughed out a cut through them
we're going to make a decorative bird

and i'm really looking forward to
getting stuck in we start by cutting two

vertical slits into a steel bar i'm
happy with that

next we heat the bar so we can open it
up along the two cup

I'm already emotionally attached to
this. It's not got a name yet, but we'll

there.

What's a good name for a little bird?
You could call it, I don't know. It's

a little bird, it's big. It's an eagle.

Okay, okay then. It's big.

Eddie. Eddie the eagle.

With the metal at the correct
temperature, it's over to the anvil.

Once you start driving it down, flip him
over. There again, I guess. Yep.

There you go. You'll feel it start to
bite.

Yeah, got it. Now, I reckon you probably
hit about as far as you can on that,

Heath. I chuck him in. Okay. And then
maybe he's on your next, Heath.

A little bit of ice? Get it in the vice.

Okay, back in the fire.

Once the metal has been reheated, the
vice holds the bird, or should I say

Eddie, steady.

Oh, yes.

While I peel back what will be the
wings.

Nice. That's starting to open out
nicely.

Then I heat it again.

And start shaping them. I'll just grab
them by the end of one of those little

tails. And we'll start giving them a
little tap in the middle.

And you'll see it starts to flatten out.

And then if you grab them by the next
bit there.

That's the trick.

Remember, we don't need to get it super,
super flat.

No. Because a little bit of the... His
wings are flapping already. Exactly.

That's not bad at all. I'll take that.
I'm quite pleased, actually. To make the

wings the right size and shape, I hammer
the metal at an angle to give it a

curve.

Once I've added some feathers, it's over
to the fly press to create its neck.

There you go.

And then big slam, big pull.

There you go.

And then take a little look. You can see
it's biting in.

Another heat allows me to pull out the
shape of the head.

Then it's time to add the details for
Eddie's face.

In my head, he's got a hooked kind of
beak. Yeah, how can we get that? If we

just come in, keep the file moving, and
we can round this over a fair bit.

Keep it to as few strokes as you
possibly can, but just gently rounding

over. Oh, here we go.

My eagle's taking shape now.

The next step is putting in the eyes.

Right, there, I'm done. I'm committing.
Ready?

No. He looks a little bit like a parrot.

I think that's looking good. He's
looking over that way.

He's seeing somebody over there. He's
seeing something over there. He's like,

wait, hang on.

To finish, I shape the ends of the wings
and polish the whole piece with a wire

brush. I am quite chuffed with that,
actually. Yeah, I would be as well.

I've absolutely loved making Eddie, and
the courses are a great way of providing

a steady income for Alex, alongside his
commissioned work.

I can see all around his workshop that
he's created tools and jigs to help

up production time on his smaller and
larger pieces.

But I want to know if any of the other
advice Adrian and I gave him has played

part in boosting his business over the
past few years.

Alex, when you laughed at my boot camp,
myself and Adrian sent you away with

some homework, a bit of an action plan
to try and help you to build your

business. One of the pointers that we
wanted you to work on was to try and fix

your pricing.

I used to work for nothing.

I hope things have improved.

I've upped my hourly rate. I used to
work for £20 an hour, which I'm sure you

can imagine the overheads of running a
place like this was nothing.

Now my hourly rate is £45 an hour. Some
people don't like that and they go, oh,

I'll go somewhere cheaper.

That's okay. I have enough work to see
me happy. Would you have four?

three and a half years ago saying well
i've got enough work i'm very grateful

for it but i can now pick and choose and
i can pick my clients and select what i

want to work on and you know it's a
wonderful position to be in it's

fantastic now another point that we
wanted you to look into was trying to

some confidence and a bit of self
-belief to sell your work and yourself

from spending the day here with you
today i'd say you've smashed that i've

really tried but one of the biggest
things that's really helped me has been

helping other people If somebody comes
in and they're really nervous and they

calm into it and then they're having a
really good time and they're relaxed,

it's such a rewarding feeling for me.

That's really helped me become, I guess,
a more confident person.

I'm so pleased to hear just how far Alex
has come in the past three and a half

years. He's really leaned into all the
advice Adrian and I gave him and I can't

wait to hear what it's meant for his
bank balance.

Do you mind if we talk figures?

This is a business after all.

So how much are you earning these days?

This year has been probably my best
year.

I'm on track to pay myself around about
£40 ,000 this year, which is like... Oh,

my God. £40 ,000?

Yeah.

I'm like...

I never thought I would have ever seen
that sort of money.

With the best will in the world, I do
work like six days a week and play ten

hours a day. Don't get me wrong, you
deserve every penny of it, but that is a

lot of money.

Yeah. How has that changed things in
your life?

I've been able to put down a deposit on
a house and move out of my parents'

place. Congratulations.

Which is incredible.

It just goes to show, doesn't it, if
you've got the hard work, the dedication

and the love and the passion for
something, you can make it happen.

Just a few years ago, Alex wasn't really
making any money from his craft.

Now he's earning £40 ,000 a year off the
cost and has managed to get onto the

property ladder.

It's an outstanding achievement and I
couldn't be happier for him.

I'm really proud of what I've been able
to achieve.

I have gotten to work not only on some
absolutely incredible jobs, but in some

fantastic places and met some incredible
people.

I'm able to not only do a job that I
love, but I'm able to help people

doing what I love. And that is something
that I genuinely never thought I would

have been able to achieve before.

It's incredible.

Time now to catch up with our second
maker.

Mum of two, Lucinda from Wiltshire.

When I first met her just over three and
a half years ago, she was hoping to

turn her love of woodturning into a
reliable money spinner.

In the day, I'm a stay -at -home parent
to two young girls, and so most of my

woodturning work is done at night time
or sometimes on the weekend.

To help Lucinda make money from the
pieces she made, she was guided by Drew

and Barnaby Ash.

Barnaby turns beautiful pieces from
locally sourced British timbers.

Drew is the marketing mastermind of
their business.

We're really excited to work with
Lucinda. She seems like a very talented

already. There's a lot of elements there
that I think could be turned into a

successful business with the right
advice and care.

For her volume piece, Lucinda made a
pair of makeup brushes from She Oak and

Curly Maple, both filled with natural
goat's hair and priced at £65 each.

As this was quite a small piece, I'm
just going to jump straight in with the

spindle gouge.

I don't want to take too much off.

I'm just making it circular in shape,
and this is what I do at the beginning

all my spindle turnings.

And so just doing a few cuts with the
spindle gouge just to fill it up.

As Lucinda turned her two makeup
brushes, Barnaby and Drew were keen to

more about the idea behind them.

what gave you the idea to make this
particular place i just wanted to make

own brushes and i wanted to make
something that had a sort of that sort

ergonomic sort of feel to it it's a lot
of like makeup brushes have these sort

of long handles and then they've got to
go into a bag or they've got to go

somewhere else yeah well i like how this
can you know stand up right and it can

look nice as well just wherever you put
it as lucinda was making good progress

with her makeup brushes i grabbed her
and drew and barnaby for a chat in my

marquee to get their thoughts on her
second item, her high -end piece.

Lucinda brought along a polished
decorative tray turned from Ziricote, a

exotic hardwood inlaid at the back with
a sterling silver maker's mark.

It had a price tag of £260.

It's absolutely spectacular, and I know
how much effort goes into getting such a

polished finish. There's a lot more time
and effort than people may realise,

and, yeah, it's very, very well made.

Thank you.

How about the price point?

If I was to make a point about the
silver coin in the base, it's a

touch, but if it's going to add a lot to
the price point and it's hidden... It

doesn't add, like, a massive thing to
it, but it's the fact that a lot of

metals will get a patina or they don't
last as long, and when you put this on

there, this...

it does make it last.

That price point for the type of item
that you're making, you know, you've got

to look at it from that first
perception.

Back at the woodshed, Lucinda got
straight back to work on the handles of

pair of makeup brushes.

I'm going to drill into the handle.

I'm going to core out the middle, ready
for the hair to go in.

Kind of got to get to a certain depth
just for the hair to sort of fit

in there.

I've made a little mark, and I sort of
know when I get to that mark, that's

to sort of pull out.

The next step was to sand them and prep
the goats hair.

There's definitely ways I could be doing
things quicker, but I do take a lot of

time on the small details.

I'm always a perfectionist.

It's something I'm actually trying to
work on, because I realise now that a

of the time it's what you see isn't what
everyone else sees.

So sometimes I need to take less time, I
think, on some aspects of it.

To finish, Lucinda cut the brush's hair
to the right shape and glued it into

place.

Her two she -oak and curly maple makeup
brushes, topped with natural goat's

hair, took just over three hours to
make, and with material costs of £25 per

brush, were priced at £65 each.

I think they're really, really
interesting, original, unique pieces. I

seen anything quite like it. I think
there's a lot of potential there to find

unique selling point for you in a
marketplace.

About the price point? I've seen pieces
kind of up to that price point that

weren't as original as yours.

I personally would double down on the
high -end aspect and focus on the range

unique timbers, but I think there's
definitely a potential to go to kind of

and up, and definitely the top -end is
probably what I would focus on. Thank

so much.

Lucinda's make -up brushes were a big
hit with Barnaby and Drew, and for her

third challenge, I asked her to make her
favourite piece.

to find out if the creations she loved
making the most could bring in big

She decided to make a dressing table
platter out of fiddleback sycamore with

brass coin inlay, this time on the front
of the piece.

It had an asking price of £120.

I'm just transferring my weight from my
left to my right foot, just doing a few

passes.

So now that's round, I will cut the back
and then I'll come back to this later

to get the shape by doing a little bit
of a tapered cut.

It was clear that Lucinda was in her
element making her pieces, but Drew

to get her thinking more about selling
them.

starting with some tips about how to
photograph her work. What we did when we

first began our business is we knew that
photography was incredibly important,

so we invested in a really decent
camera.

And then what it allows to do is take
something simple like that.

So what do you think about a shot like
that?

Yeah, I really love the composition and
how it's quite simple, but it gets

everything in there. I need to
definitely get a camera now.

After getting Drew's photography advice,
Lucinda went back to work.

And having shaped and inserted the brass
inlay into her platter, she gave the

piece a polish.

Ready to put on the final finish, which
will be a bit of wax.

I'm going to apply it, just keeping a
little bit of distance from the brass

between the wood, and I'm just going to
slowly buff it in and then finish off

with a buffing wheel.

I'm just sort of covering the piece, and
then I'm going to remove the excess.

Bit of power.

So I get a clean piece of cloth.

And I just insert.

And this just helps remove any excess.

Lucinda's dressing table platter, made
from fiddleback sycamore and inlaid with

a polished brass maker's mark, had a
make time of around a day and was priced

£120.

What do you think?

I think it's a really, really beautiful
piece. And I do like the fact that the

coin's a bit more visible on this one as
well. It really adds to the charm.

The finish is very, very high and the
quality of the work is really, really

good. Thank you.

How about the price point? It's a really
beautiful form. The finish is lovely.

You know, it's got quite a wide appeal
for that type of...

Yeah, I can really see this piece and
the brush is playing really well as a

of group shot, stylized together,
rituals of beauty and self -care. And

a market where people are willing to
spend a bit more.

We were all incredibly impressed with
Lucinda's work and she headed back to

Wiltshire with an action plan to help
make her dream of having a successful

woodturning business come true.

First, she needed to speed up production
to make her pieces more profitable.

Next, we wanted her to increase the
price of her fantastic makeup brushes.

And finally, she needed to improve her
branding and marketing to help sell her

work.

For the next eight weeks, Lucinda worked
on her plan, supported by Barnaby and

Drew.

She started with speeding up the
creation of her brushes, which included

designed one.

This is my sort of like a contouring
type brush.

Oh, wow.

I'm really excited about this. Yeah.

I like the form as well. Yeah,

and they stand up as well. They all go
in style with the other ones.

Sounds like some amazing progress. We're
really excited for you and seeing how

much you've done.

Yeah, I really like the new brushes.

Thank you.

Bye.

Lucinda also took part in her first
craft fair.

Over four days, she had the chance to
sell her work to customers looking for

very best handmade pieces.

I'm in my 10th, so I've just had a
couple of days here so far, and it's

really well. What I've sold so far is
more than I've sold in the time I have

been online, through social media and
stuff.

The brushes went down really well, so
I've almost sold out all my brushes.

That was amazing.

And I'm just really enjoying myself.

In the two months after my boot camp,
Lucinda did everything she could to get

her business up and running.

And when she returned to report back on
her progress, she'd absolutely nailed

it. I've made £2 ,065.

And I'm really impressed with what I've
done. You should be.

In this short amount of time.

I've just been like, wow, OK, this could
be something.

And you really need to understand how
much progress you have made in this

period of time.

Going from it being a night -time hobby
where she was hardly selling anything to

making over £2 ,000 in just a few weeks
was a fantastic achievement for Lucinda.

She had to take off her cost, but it was
the beginning of something big for her.

It's now been over three and a half
years since she arrived at my bootcamp,

to find out how much her profits have
grown since then, Drew and Barnaby have

headed to Wiltshire to catch up with
her.

Hiya, come on in.

How are you guys doing? Hi, Lucinda.
Lovely to see you. Yeah, you too.

Lucinda's recently moved house and has
built her own brand new workshop, which

is actually a bit smaller than her last
one.

It's interesting, you seem to have
downsized and specialised a little bit.

at boot camp I was doing, you know, the
platters, I was doing all these

homewares and then the brushes and as,
you know, the business has developed

started to sort of drop the platters and
focus on the brushes and that's what's

been the sort of big seller and by able
to do that I can kind of use less

equipment, be more efficient with my
time.

I've had clients, I've bought over 20
makeup brushes now and I've realised

they're quite collectible.

Where do you sell your work now?

Most of my brushes are sold via my
website.

I also do commissions.

I did use the dabble in craft fairs, but
I sort of focused more on just doing my

collections and drops.

as that's worked really well and i have
lots of people who collect makeup

brushes from america buying big orders
which has been amazing it's really

special to see you doubling down on on
sort of the more high -end and more

creative aspects of what you do and
really zeroing in on the brushes you've

really made it your own and developed
some really interesting really special

techniques that sort of set you apart as
sort of not competing with others and

more like the only doing the specific
thing you're doing oh thank you yeah

been amazing i've I started to introduce
butterflies, and I've started to add

sapphires to makeup brushes, because why
not?

It's been very exciting.

Specializing in one type of product has
helped Lucinda to broaden her materials

and incorporate special objects into her
unique makeup brushes, which are now

priced between £95 and £300 each.

Her latest creation is made from pink
ivory wood, a beautiful Southern African

hardwood. and includes the wing of a
butterfly that died naturally sourced

a butterfly farm it has material costs
of 45 pounds and a make time of half a

day it's priced at 220 pounds and
lucinda's going to show barnaby and drew

it's made what we're doing at the moment
is we're just taking those edges off

the corners and making the piece round

it's a very hard dense wood so i'm sort
of taking slow cuts of it i've got it

near enough to like where i want it and
where i will start to section the pieces

off the naturally pink african wood is
very rare making lucinda's makeup brush

even more desirable to create the
handle's curve lucinda uses a spindle

checking its height as she goes to make
sure it fits with the rest of her 60

millimeter tall brush range

Toggle the side there.

Just like that, and then you've got
yourself a nice mover cut now.

When she's happy with the handle's
shape, Lucinda uses a large drill bit,

a Forstner bit, to create a wide hole
for her brush's bristles.

I'm not going to rush this part at all,
and the wood can overheat, and then you

can... get cracks and things like that
so i will take it with a few passes then

i'll come back out and then i'll go back
in just to make sure that i'm not

damaging the wood these woods were just
so dense so say if i was

turning sycamore something like that it
would just go straight through and it

would cut through like butter but these
ones are just a bit more please be a bit

more careful with them

With the hole for the goat's hair
created, Lucinda sands the wood to get

any ridges.

Next, she saws off the end, creates a
shallow hole

for a recycled silver maker's mark, and
finishes it with an oil to give the wood

a bit more colour.

Then it's time to add a laminated
butterfly wing with a strong, fast

adhesive.

It's a bit of a fiddly stage.

You have to be really careful.

The wings are very fragile.

This is a blue morpho butterfly.

These come from the Amazon.

It was really popular to work with blue
morpho butterflies in the Victorian era.

What they would do is they'd place glass
over the wing and they'd turn them into

serving trays and all sorts.

I'm going to spray it with some
Activate.

And that just helps the glue dry a lot
faster.

Once the glue has set, Lucinda sands the
handle down.

What I'm going for is that glass finish,
like it looks like glass when it's

done. Yeah, yeah.

So you've got to have real attention to
detail.

It's looking really, really beautiful,
Lucinda. Thank you.

It's great to see Lucinda making a new
product, and Barnaby and Drew are keen

find out what else she's been up to
since we last saw her over three and a

years ago.

What would you say is your biggest
success that you've had since boot camp?

I'd say just... The overall development
of the brushes itself, but also the

Queen Elizabeth Scholarship, that was
the main thing I got to really develop

designs and my products and the way
they're made, the materials they work

I started to turn stone as well in my
scholarship, so I plan to do more stone

handle brushes, which will be quite
exciting.

Yeah, I've been really impressed to see
actually with some of your processes, I

can see there are certain ways of doing
things you've developed that are unique

to you. Yeah. And that's very, very
exciting.

The Queen Elizabeth Scholarship Trust is
a charity that funds training and

education for makers across the UK, and
it helped Lucinda develop her skills.

To finish her new butterfly handle
makeup brush, she creates a glassy shine

the wood by using a finishing polish
traditionally used for wooden musical

instruments.

A nice sort of even tone across the
wing. Yeah.

Wow. And I would say that's it now.

She then combs high -grade goat fibres.

creates a knot and glues them into the
handle.

Lucinda's new pink ivory wood makeup
brush with butterfly wing inlay is an

exquisite high -end product and comes
with a price tag of £220.

Focusing on luxury makeup sponges and
brushes like this is a great business

plan. And I'm keen to find out if any of
the advice we gave her back at the boot

camp has also helped drive her business
forward and how it's paying off

financially.

When you came to boot camp, you really
spoke about getting those prices up a

little bit, especially on your more
luxurious pieces.

How's that gone for you? That's gone
quite well. I think it's kind of long

overdue for me to maybe do that again
with just the techniques I'm using, the

materials I'm using.

you know, the silver, the gemstones, the
exotic woods, butterflies.

So I think, you know, it's probably time
for me to consider doing that again.

And maybe I just need to have a bit more
confidence to just go for it. There's

definitely potential to sort of continue
on. But what you've done so far is

really, really amazing.

Something else we wanted you to focus on
with your branding and marketing. Is

that something that you've managed to
do?

Yes, I think the branding is a massive
part of what I'm doing is I'm also

selling kind of like a concept. It's not
just a, you know, a makeup brush is a

bit more than that. And I really
implemented the advice I got when I last

you guys invest in a really good camera,
learning those photography skills. And

it's really excelled my branding to the
point where I've got featured in the New

York Times, where they use my images.
And I'm like, that was just such a

for me to realize how far.

My skills have come and just the
business itself.

Yeah, having your brand image and brand
recognition is really important. You've

really curated and cultivated something
that's very uniquely yours, especially

when it reflects in the material and
everything that you've chosen to use.

getting in something like the New York
Times is a really wonderful, wonderful

thing to achieve. So that's fantastic,
especially with your imagery.

Lucinda spent the last three and a half
years honing her skills and business.

And I'm looking forward to hearing what
that's meant for her earnings.

How much have you made through your
work? What have you made for the

So on average, I make around $24 ,000 a
year.

Wow, that's incredible.

Congratulations. Huge improvement.

I think it could be higher, but at the
moment, you know, I'm a single parent

with two kids, and it's like, what works
for me? And I think...

Making higher end but less is what I'm
comfortable with without feeling like

going to burn out.

But I hope it will continue to grow. I'm
excited for what's to come. If I hadn't

gone through this experience, I don't
know if I would have a business today.

may have just remained a hobby.

So I'm really grateful.

Lucinda works around 20 to 25 hours a
week to suit her family lifestyle,

£24 ,000 a year after cost.

It's a brilliant achievement, and I've
no doubt that the only way is up for her

now. Three and a half years ago, I was
just turning things in my garage,

things online. I never thought anything
like this was going to happen. I didn't

think I'd have a business.

I have people collecting my work all
over the world and people recognise me

the brush lady and it's quite something
and I'm quite proud of myself and I

can't wait to see what's to come.

Lucinda and Alex have spent the last few
years working hard on all the advice we

gave them.

And they've now got fantastic,
sustainable businesses that I'm sure

continue to grow.

Want some help building a business that
lasts?

Visit the Open University's interactive
guide for practical help to sustain and

grow your business.

Scan the QR code on screen or visit
connect .open .ac .uk forward

slash I made it at market.