This week’s Friday Feature, and the last one of 2024, is the lovely Fi from Creative Stationery London. Fi creates luxury handcrafted stationery (yes, you read that right… handcrafted!) with a focus on purpose-filled pieces – designed to be used well, not just admired on your shelf. Each item of stationery is made by Fi herself, and many of them can even be personalised.
We asked Fi some questions to get to know more about the incredible woman behind the inspiring small business…
To me, it’s my outlet. It lets my mind process things, when I’m doing things more repetitively, but it’s also my source where I can disconnect. It also allows me to tap into the side of Fi that I don’t think many people potentially even know is there. I have people who follow me from completely outside of the business space, from like secondary school and family. So, it allows me to kind of be the full version of Fi, rather than just one side. I don’t have to let everything stay up within me. As creativity flows, I can let parts of my own character flow. It really is a very freeing thing for me. Especially given I’ve come from such a regimented career path. It allows me to be all of Fiona and allows all of the sides of Fiona to come out… in the creation of stationery. Allowing me to embrace things I like to do and create things for others that I want to have myself.
I think I have always had a creativity in me but, because of what was deemed as my ‘strengths’ by educators, I never pursued it. Funnily enough, I actually did want to look into art GCSE at one point but I was told I’m not that great at art but have the patience for it so I should consider it (which has many MANY things to unpack), and then at sixth form A-level I wanted to do photography but I think it clashed with another topic and so it never came to fruition.
I was raised by my mum who is a fashion designer. So I’ve always played around with cutting and sticking and making things. I remember once I did a whole catalogue of designs for these paper dolls I had made. I ‘laminated’ them with tape, cut them out, and switched their clothes up. So, I think it’s always been in me… it’s just never something I’ve pursued until now.
Which, I think plays into why I struggle to see myself as a creative. I can be very technically minded and very wordy. I always used to laugh and say: ‘give me an essay and I’ll write you an essay’, but I’ve always said my sister is more creative. Even though my business is so ridiculously creative, I still struggle to see it as that… and still struggle to see myself as a creative.
100 percent! I always laugh because, my business probably wouldn’t exist potentially at all, had I not gone through probably one of the most difficult seasons of my whole life. I’ve briefly touched on it before, I don’t necessarily talk about it too much now, but my business was birthed because of my third son’s sickness. When his illness first presented, there wasn’t covid, but as his illness progressed and got worse we had entered into a global lockdown and it was made harder because he had respiratory failures during a global respiratory disease. He never actually had covid, but the fight (and I would have to call it a genuine medical fight!) and the strain and the pressure and the anxiety and the stresses that presented, just to get him the adequate care in the very beginnings… because the world is fearful, and I’m presenting my son who, at the time, is just months old.
My faith is a dominant part of my life. A lot of what I do stems from my faith, and I remember I began to do what would effectively be called ‘lettering scripture’. Friends were like ‘oh, do me some’ and things grew from there. The reason I have Creative Stationery London now, as opposed to what I originally began with as Caligrafi… I remember trying to get some of my lettered scripture onto notebooks and putting nice things on notebooks and I just couldn’t afford the outlay, so I began to research inhouse binding. I think they’d say the rest is history but there is so much more in there. From there, it just took me down a path of learning how to book bind.
The creativity helped my mind to detach from everything we were going through, and it allowed my mind to just centre on scripture and the hope of what scripture was. It allowed my hand to just kind of flow. There is also this thing… when you write something, you help commit it to memory, so it was also helping me to learn scripture and again be so focused on the hope the scripture gave. It was also an outlay and my time for peace, because I would do it when the kids were in bed.
As my business has developed, I’ve noticed that during darker seasons… during seasons when my third son has been ill, or when I’ve gone through medical issues… I’ve found that I naturally gravitate towards creating again. Like designing a new notebook or designing a new collection, and it’s from there that it evolves and develops.
It helps my mind detach and I always call it my free therapy because, although business has so much to it, the creative side has always been the part where I detach. For example, the binding helps my mind just flow. I can literally process thoughts as I bind.
So many elements. It’s so freeing… so freeing! You actually get to take paper, just reems of blank plain paper, and create it into something that is a practical, purpose-filled item… especially my diaries. My diaries carry a lot of my heart. I remember when I first wanted to create a planner or diary… seeing, effectively, the competition that is out there and thinking ‘how am I ever going to go up against these’ and then a friend reminded me it’s nothing about that. It’s about me, bringing what I have, what’s within me, to my audience and my peers. Not just within the small business world, but outside of that as well.
I love creating something I know is going to be used. People always go to me ‘oh, but it’s so pretty I don’t want to use it’ but I pour into my diaries, especially. The layout is on purpose. There is nothing done, just because… it’s all designed so it can be used and can take you through the year. Oh my gosh, I love it!
Knowing that an idea I had, once upon a time, is now going out to the masses… that’s what I love about creating the stationery I create. You can buy a notebook anywhere. You can buy a diary anywhere. They are just massed produced. Not only are mine personalised (you can put your name on the front) but I have thought about the type of person who will use mine. I’m dyslexic, so I’ve created them deliberately and on purpose to keep the space clear and uncluttered… to allow you to flow through the year and take those focus points back because the weeks and the days can get so hectic.
That’s why I love creating stationery, my diaries especially, because I know they are purpose-filled pieces. Even my memory books… they’re a place to capture memories of beautiful moments, they have a purpose.
And, if you want to know what truly makes me buzz about stationery, it’s the technical side. A lot of people fall in love with the paper… and don’t get me wrong, I’m here for a really good sheet of paper… but the way it technically comes together. Like, learning about binding techniques. It ticks the technical boxes in my brain.
Reaching out and making and retaining friendships. I’ve made life-long friends because of this business. They’re not specific milestones I can pin-point, but I look at the friendships I’ve made and think ‘those are my achievements’… because, as an adult, I have struggled with maintaining good friendships.
I think also it will surprise people (because it surprises me!), that one of my favourite moments in the business to date was when I had a pop-up in John Lewis in October 2021, for eight days. I had just launched my first ever dated planner at the time. I was new to the world of how I create my stationery now, in respects of like the hardcovered planners. And I’ll never forget this… this lady comes up to my stand and she picks up a couple of things and she goes to me ‘where do I pay?’. It’s the first time someone had picked up one of my products and not questioned the value, they were just ready to pay. I remember it so vividly. I stood there and told her you pay with me, because we’re pop-ups, and explained what we were doing. But that week showed me that my business worked.
I had never really come across a handmade stationery business like my own. I’m not saying other people don’t make handmade stationery but, at the time, in the original sphere of business I was in, I was one of the very few people I knew who were creating stationery the way I had learnt to create stationery. So, I felt quite nuanced. And it just made me sit there and think ‘wow, what I do works’… and I wasn’t even CSL at that point.
Other milestones along the way include making it to the high-street. That will always be something I’m very proud of. It taught me so much. It gave me a sense of achievement in my business, because I did hand-make each product. And it just made me realise, I can make this business work.
It’s not like a hierarchy, with this thing over that. They are so separate. Because in the learning how to build true relationships and friendships behind the scenes… I’ve seen that evolve into what my business is today. One milestone doesn’t trump the other, but without the friendships and relationships I’ve built, I wouldn’t be here today. And THAT is my biggest achievement.
I’m literally, as I say this, looking at a collab that blows my mind. I have friends in the DMs that I could only really dream of. As an adult, sometimes making friends is not as easy. It can be so easy to think, when a person pops up and is smiling, that they find it so easy – but I actually find social interaction something I have to inwardly work on. I have to be so intentional. So, to see where I have worked on reaching out to people, being a friend to other people, and allowing them to be my friend (not hiding away)… it has opened some incredible doors and opportunities. That’s what I’ve achieved… the relationship side of business, and the friends.
Do you know what I wish people knew about my stationery? That it’s all handmade! People don’t actually know. That’s why I continually post what I post.
If you land on my website, or if you meet me in person (even when I have stood at events like Top Drawer and other stationery shows, or other markets)… to be able to convey that what I produce is by my own hands, is one of the hardest things I find. I recently did Big Church in May, and literally it’s like ‘what’s the difference, why should I buy from you’.
When I make my scripture-based journals, they carry a different price point naturally. It’s one of the things I’ve struggled with, and actually a decision I’ll be making going forward in my business, but to convey the handcrafted element, the bookbinding element, is one of the things I wish people knew. I wish they could see it.
I’ve been told it’s a compliment, that I can produce to such a high standard that you cannot actually tell it’s not been made in a factory… but at the same time I’m like ‘but I need you to know it’s handmade’.
So, as much as those who are in constant engagement and communication with me realise… outside of that sphere, even my own family haven’t put it together. I wish people knew it is truly handcrafted.
I’m not the best illustrator, so I have licenced designs. But I carefully curate those designs and carefully choose who I work with. So that the skills of those I work with, especially like you’ll see with Georgina Peters Art and Emily Harvey Art… the skills of their craft also shine. Because I think it’s such an amazing tying together, when two creatives work together.
On rare occasions, I’ll get something outsourced just to save some time. But the only thing I’ve outsourced recently is the printing of some monthly dividers… that’s it… and just because it saved some time, because I’ve just had a baby. That’s it. Everything else is me!
Creative Stationery London didn’t exist as Creative Stationery London when I first started. That’s probably the biggest evolution of the business. I started as Caligrafi, a pun on my name – ‘Calig’ and then ‘fi’ for the Fi of Fiona. I started lettering scripture and things like that and trying to put things on plaques and play around with different mediums, but it just didn’t really take off. Then I just fell in love with the creation of stationery, after finding that I couldn’t match the price points that manufacturing held. And from there, the evolution came.
I became an incorporated company, as Creative Stationery London, on the 31st of January 2022, and I relaunched as CSL in the February… so a month after. And since then, even, I’ve evolved. I was very heavily floral based but now it’s very much colour-block and gold foil. I’ve fallen in love with the wire-bound stationery, and I’ve allowed that to be my niche. When people reach out, I’m like, this is what I focus on, this is what I produce.
And that’s the evolution. It’s all still handcrafted, but I’ve understood what I can create. I suppose they call it ‘becoming a master of your craft’ and learning about bookbinding and working out what works. Because sometimes, even when I’ve created things, they still haven’t looked, or presented, or had the longevity that I’d need them to have. You know, if you’ve got a diary for 365 days of the year, you need it to last. That evolution, and that journey of materials and paper weights, the brightness of paper, FSC certified… those are the parts of the evolution process that you don’t necessarily talk about on the day-to-day, but looking back on what I did create to what I create now… that’s the evolution. The brand you see today isn’t what I even thought it could become.
We’ve gone from playing about with lettering and focusing on calligraphy, to a 180… and now I’m a stationery company and enjoying making handheld, practical, purpose-filled diaries and planners and faith journals. I make other small gifting bits on the side, but my stationery takes the full centre of attention.
I think I’d have something to do with clothes. Sewing? I’m not sure… but something to do with clothes. As I’ve said, my mum is a fashion designer. So, I grew up around fashion and pattern cutting. My mum’s trademark is wedding dresses. I’ve never been drawn to creating a wedding dress collection. But in my day-to-day life I enjoy piecing together outfits and having fun with what I wear. So, I think if I had any other creative business, it would be something in fashion and styling, maybe.
Work-life balance? Is there such a thing? I’m joking.
For me, it means being intentional and boundary driven. I carve out time. I never used to be intentional before. I look back at some of what would be seen as great achievements in the CSL journey, and I laugh and say to my husband how on earth was that even a thing that I did. The way I hyper-focused and created those large batch runs… looking back I realise I was so naïve. I burnt myself out and I lost love for my business because of it.
I don’t think there will ever be a 50/50 split. Sometimes the business will take more from you, so like now we’re in what they call ‘silly season’ (Christmas season). The time that I need of an evening is more necessary, but for me it’s just making sure I’m intentional about the divide. I have to be very structured but with some flexibility.
Do we have enough time? Haha. It’s not so much challenges… I’d say it’s more the curveballs of life that affect me. Hormonally… yes. Postpartum… 2 billion percent! But they’re just things I have to take into consideration.
I’ve never really felt like I’ve had any opportunities shut down because I’m a woman, or anything like that. There are some industries that are just heavily male dominated. Like manufacturing is a male dominated arena, but I can’t say I’ve experienced any deep challenges.
When my third son has had operations and things, I’ve taken deliberate time away or just let my mind focus on something else other than the situation at hand. I’ve got quite a good support network to help me with certain things. My immediate family have been really supportive of the journey of CSL and all that it has developed and grown to become.
We were already firm believers in creativity being great for wellbeing, but hearing how Fi used creativity as an outlet (which then turned into her business) during such a difficult time in her life… it’s so inspiring!
If you’re looking for gorgeous, handcrafted stationery, definitely take a look at Creative Stationery London. *Although, you’ll need to be patient and wait until spring 2025 to get your hands on something, as Fi is currently on maternity having recently had her fourth child (told you she is incredible!).
If you haven’t already found us over on Instagram – why not come say hi and give us a follow. We would love for you to join the conversation. We’re also sharing a great behind-the-scenes video of Fi making one of her collaborative planners.
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