A natural flair

Nicky Edmunds co-owns two local Inside Out shops with her husband, and also designs and makes a wide range of ceramics for her Habulous business.

Nicky’s father was in the navy and so her somewhat itinerant upbringing included nine different schools, a period in Canada, but also a relatively long stay in Liskeard for a couple of years. She struggled with dyslexia during her education but did well in art and after studying it at Falmouth school of art and design she went on to specialise in illustration at Swansea. She met her husband Paul and the couple moved to London. Doubting her ability as an illustrator, Nicky worked in pubs for the next three years. It was an interesting time as one pub regularly hosted book signings and was frequented by theatre people, while another quiet pub near Camden Palace often attracted famous celebrities. Following this, Nicky went into recruitment and discovered she had a natural flair for the career, becoming a partner in the company six years later. However when her son was born, she realised the job required spending far too many hours away from her family and she started considering a future in retail. The sector was booming at this point and shop leases were few and far between. Nicky and Paul sold everything they owned to be able to pay the purchase price of a lease and moved back in with their parents.

They looked at 270 towns, before a lease came up in Tavistock offering exactly what they were hunting, as well as being close to Nicky’s mother who had settled in Calstock. Their first Inside Out shop was soon off the ground in Tavistock, selling a range of gifts and homeware. The new lifestyle suited the couple well, particularly after the birth of their second child, when they realised they could maintain a good work/home balance, sharing both childcare and shop management. Spurred on by their success they opened another shop in Dartmouth, followed by a third in Princesshay in Exeter. However when the Dartmouth rent rose extortionately, they decided to close that shop and focus on the other two which were trading well.

When Nicky reached her 40s, she decided to make a few changes after her health suffered and she started feeling a little burnt out. Her love of art and craft had led her to experiment with a number of different forms over the years, such as mosaic, knitting, painting and stained glass, but overall she knew she preferred creating in 3D. In her early London days, she had made polymer clay beads and sold them on a stall. So she signed up for a clay handbuilding class in Plymouth, and was soon fascinated by the possibilities of the medium. She told herself she could buy a kiln if she sold enough wax melts. The day came and she eagerly awaited the results of her first firing – only to discover that all her pieces had broken! Undaunted she took a class to learn how to throw clay on the wheel. She thought she would be able to do it but recalls her first efforts were disastrous, however she bought her own wheel and persisted. She has discovered there is a steep learning curve to becoming a potter but she is now six years in and creating beautiful ceramics, so the time investment has been worth it.

The pandemic created huge difficulties for retailers, especially small businesses selling non-essential goods. Nicky saw large retailers of essential goods, also selling non-essential goods, while small businesses like hers had to close. So she started a social media campaign on behalf of the local retail community as well as a petition for the Government to rectify this unfair situation. She was contacted by newspapers, and radio and TV stations to comment on the difficulties it was causing, and has since become quite a ‘go-to’ contact for the media on retail issues. The pandemic compelled Nicky and Paul to re-evaluate their company and it made sense to grow online sales, particularly for Nicky’s ceramics business – Habulous (her daughter’s combination of happy and fabulous). Paul converted the other half of the garage creating an even bigger studio and Nicky set to work. She also started introducing their new products in a regular 10-minute live presentation on Facebook, which regularly received 1000 viewings during lockdowns and is still very popular.

The ceramics business has grown substantially in the last two years and recently Nicky took on two trainee potters through the Kickstart scheme and is now looking for another potter to work alongside her. She says she has always been an active ‘doer’, but now she also feels more confident in sharing her opinions, and having found her voice she can be more true to herself.

Rosemary Best

For more details visit insideouthome.co.uk or habulous.co.uk

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