I paint baby bumps!
Thursday 9th April 2009
Face painting!' I laughed to my husband, Jason. 'Are you serious? Have you forgotten last time?' Our youngest, Emily, then 20 months, was about to start playgroup, and we were talking about me going back to work part-time. Trouble was, a medical condition meant I couldn't go back to my old job as an auxiliary nurse. I'd developed balance problems after Emily was born, which doctors suspected was caused by a virus. I'd been registered disabled and had to use a walking stick. So I knew my new job couldn't be anything too physical.
But I had to laugh when Jason, 41, suggested face painting. Back when Emily was 5 months old, Jason had asked me to help out at the 'family fun day' he'd arranged at the garden centre he managed. I'd always been good at drawing and had expected it to be a breeze. But I'd soon discovered that transforming kids into lions and frogs was harder than it looked. 'Do I look like a doggy?' one little boy had asked when I'd finished. 'Er, yes,' I'd lied, guiltily. Poor kid looked more like he was wearing a muddy face pack.
'That was only your first try,' Jason said now. 'Why don't you practise on the kids, see if you
can get any better?' I agreed it was worth a try and asked our kids, Bex, 17, Danny, 14, Matthew, 6, and Emily to be my guinea pigs. Matthew was the keenest. He loved being a sabre-toothed tiger one day, Spiderman the next. With every try, I felt more confident. Until I found a website for professional face painters and clicked on a few of the albums. 'Look at this,' I gasped to Jason. 'These are amazing.'
Tigers who really looked like tigers, lizards who'd make flies nervous… Suddenly, I was determined to be that good one day. On one of the forums, I found out that groups of face and body artists often met up to swap tips at 'jams'. So I arranged to go to the next one. Everyone was so friendly. 'How do you get your lines so crisp?' I asked one lady. 'How do I make my petals more realistic?'vI asked another. By March 2007, I felt confident enough to start my own business. I set up a website and within two weeks, I'd got my first booking for a local boy's 5th birthday party. It went really well, and the birthday boy was thrilled when
I transformed him into a very recognisable Scooby Doo. Five months later, I was at a face and body art convention, where I saw an artist who painted pregnant women's bumps.
'How wonderful,' I said. 'I bet the mums really treasure the photos.' I'd love to paint a baby bump,I told my new face-painting mates online. You can have mine, emailed Katie, an artist.
Katie was one week off her due date, and knew she was having a girl. Really? I replied. I'd love to! 'I don't want anything too girly,' she said when we met up. I decided to circle her bump with lilac flowers, along with barbed wire to give the image a bit of 'edge'. I did my best to make sure she felt relaxed, but I think the brush must have felt a bit ticklish, because I could really feel the baby wriggling. 'My “canvas” is moving,' I laughed.
But despite the 'interruptions', I finished my design in two hours. Katie was pleased as punch.'It'll be fab to have this to look back on!' she said happily.Two months later, a friend heard about what I'd done, and put me in touch with a woman called Lucy who wanted her bump painted. Lucy didn't know what sex she was having, but after a chat, I decided to paint a baby sleeping on a flower. A few weeks after that, I heard from a woman called Trudi.
Again, she didn't know what sex her baby was. So this time, I painted a tropical sunset, with dolphins leaping across her bump. Again, she was delighted. All the mums have said that having their bump painted was really relaxing, and I've loved being a part of such a magical time. Best of all, I'm really booked up for the foreseeable future. All in all, I love my new job. It's a bump-er way to pay the bills!