Back in 2021, I drew Pipi my guinea and posted her online on a guinea forum. I hadn’t illustrated since a child, but after 35 years of accountancy and tax, I wanted to follow a dream of being an artist.

The guinea fowl forum in America gave me such support with their enthusiasm, I continued to illustrate more guineas and sell them on mugs and tea towels plus a few bespoke commissions. I suddenly found myself looking across The Pond to bring ideas to life and create products specifically for the many homesteads and poultry keepers. My world suddenly expanded!

By 2023 I had adopted almost 55 geese, ducks, chickens and Guineas…. Pipi and Bovril and I had started illustrating them, othe birds and studying Poultry Science. It looked like I had found my niche!

Early this year I had the idea of creating guinea lamps for the American Market. A friend in England was working on 3D printing. What luck! With a few emails pinging back and forth, we designed a feasible lamp shade that could be mounted on a lamp or left freestanding with a battery light, great as a children’s nightlight or on a desk for a guinea enthusiast.

I worked on ten designs accross five colours, using AI to bring the visions to life and my friend printed them. They arrived this week and I spent yesterday photographing all the shades on various lamps and freestanding. 

Once online, this weekend, they will hopefully be successful and I can look at other designs. I love collaborations with other creatives and do hope this project leads to more ideas.

Long live guineas!