A friend of mine, Mel, has been setting up her own business called Rockabilly BODY around the same time that I’ve been working on my Temporary Body Art business. Where my business is mobile, hers is bricks and mortar. A team of people have been working incredibly hard to get her beautiful studio open this year. It’s been great to have someone else who is wrestling with the same things, working insane hours, experimenting with different forms of advertising, being surprised by the unpredictability of what service takes off and what doesn’t generate much interest. I admire her passion and dedication and hope like hell it all pays off for her. One of the down sides of a physical premises is the much larger risk factor. I’ve invested in my business minimally – a few thousand I’ve paid upfront instead of big investments with loans and leases and a hell of a lot more stress. On the upside however, her studio is simply gorgeous and I love being there! Checkout a couple of photos:

That slogan on the wall behind the manicure station reads

You can’t buy happiness, but you can buy nail polish, and that’s kind of the same thing.

Her whole studio is scattered with beautiful or funny quotes, she’s worked hard to make her studio alternative to the usual crappy nasty hype so common in the beauty industry. The place is designed to be friendly to guys, girls, trans, and queer, a safe place to pamper yourself with whatever beauty stuff floats your boat without being pushed into some standard of beauty you don’t like. Mel does a lot of work researching all her products and making sure everything is of a very high standard, which I like.

I’m kinda taken with it, as you can tell. 🙂 Plus, I won a gift voucher from an SAFM contest! Whoot! But yeah, I love getting my nails painted with that long lasting stuff in cool colours like BLACK. Rare to find that! If you’re around Royal Park area, I’d suggest dropping in. I particularly recommend the waxing for wildly sensitive skin, and the pedicures. But that could just be me. 🙂

The really awesome news from my own purely self involved perspective, is that I’m in the process of having a small studio of my own built in the premises! I’m SO excited about this! The plan is to set myself up there on a weekly basis to be able to offer exciting body art such as henna, temporary hand painted tattoos, and body painting for photo shoots! Finally people will be able to book me in directly for their own art instead of having to book a whole party with friends and get me out to their place! We’re also planning some exciting collaborations around parties and events as there’s a beautiful big space in Mel’s studio that’s perfect to host indoor parties, particularly if you like someone else cleaning up after you.

It’s a bit of a risk, I’ve not heard of any other body artists trying to set up a physical premises like this, but the crossover between Mel’s clients and my own is quite significant, our work is very complimentary, and it sounds like far too interesting an idea to turn down. There are further plans in the works around hair, painted shoes, jewellery, art prints, and exhibition projects but I don’t feel like letting all the cats out of the bag just yet. Right now, a small room the size of my master bedroom at home is being constructed. I’ve paid and delivered gyprock sheets and other necessities and I’m working on furniture, colour schemes, paint, and fabrics. Of all my many exciting plans for 2014, this is one that just makes me squee with excitement! I will have a physical location and mailing address for my work! I will have a public studio to display art! I will be able to set aside time each week to create art (yay!), and do admin (ugh), and try different ideas out on the public to see what people like. It may be brilliant, it may completely flop. I’ve no idea, and there’s only one way to find out.

Life is either a daring adventure or nothing”

“One can never consent to creep when one feels an impulse to soar

Quotes by Helen Keller