CUSTOMER STORIES
Small business feature: The Curious Cactus
Meet Lydia, the illustrator and maker behind The Curious Cactus, a creative business specialising in quirky, illustration-inspired products. Discover her artistic journey, passion for sustainability and ambitions for future merchandise collections.
We love your work, but would love to know more about you. Tell us all there is to know about you and your business.
Hi, I am Lydia, the artist/illustrator/maker/crafter behind The Curious Cactus! The Curious Cactus is a quirky collection of artwork and illustration-based products all with a whimsical and light-hearted twist (and a few puns!)
As an engineer who has always had an interest in art and design, I created The Curious Cactus while I was at Uni as a creative outlet to bring a little whimsical joy to other people. I have a passion for sustainability (my day job) and channel this into The Curious Cactus brand, with the use of recycled and locally made materials where available, while still providing whimsical quirky, and punny products.
What is a product you haven’t made yet but would love to sometime in the future?
I have dreams of making a whole plant army of little unkillable plant desk friends (basically standees). Probably the only way I will ever be able to afford a true variegated monstera (iykyk).
If you could have a lifetime supply of any Zap! Product, which would it be and why?
Definitely wooden pins, I get too much joy out of holding a physical little design! Especially the mini (20mm) little pins – they are too cute, and very popular.
What is the biggest curveball you have had to overcome since starting your business?
I moved countries with my business in 2019. I decided to move from Australia to Scotland in early 2019 and brought my business with me. It was pretty hard clearing out old stock and I only brought some paints and brushes with me (and a bunch of ideas), but as I already had a few years of experience running my business it was so cool to start over with a bunch of knowledge about what I needed and wanted to run my business how it would suit me.
What is your biggest motivation?
I live for those moments when I see someone laughing at my puns, or someone tells me their dad shows everyone their card because they loved it so much. I also have some wildly lovely repeat customers and the joy I get seeing their names pop up, again and again, makes me aspire to make the things I know they will love.
What is your current favourite Netflix/tv show and what’s your go-to snack for watching?
I love the Queen's Gambit! I am also a sucker for rewatching shows like The Vampire Diaries and Gossip Girl because I can listen to them and work on my art/pack orders while they are on in the background and it doesn’t matter if I walk away or my printer drowns out the show a bit. I can’t watch things actively while I work and I like to multi-task.
Go-to snack is anything peach flavoured – peach tea, dried peach, peach yoghurt! I also love Biscoff, so anything Biscoff flavoured will also suck me in.
What inspires your illustrations?
My friends – are often the ones to say ‘oh please paint a bunny’ or oh I would love XYZ product with your design on it. I also love painting plants, so draw a lot of inspiration from the plants I have in my home (I have about 25 plants in just my room) as well as the plant shop down the road from me.
What things are most important to you when running your business?
I want to give people joy and share my art without compromising my ethics. My day job is in sustainability (I work mostly on carbon foot printing and decarbonisation planning) so this is something I am always thinking about. I think a lot of small businesses say sustainability is important to them, but for me, it is an ingrained way of life since I grew up off the grid. This is why I like to work with as local manufacturers as I possibly can, and there are some products (like enamel pins) that I will never make as I cannot justify the carbon impacts of manufacturing and shipping. Plus digital printing (like Zap Creatives) works much better for my art style.
If you had one superpower what would it be?
I would love to be able to control time – I never seem to have enough!
What would you like to achieve this year?
This year I would really like to get my work into more retail shops, especially as I only work on my business part-time, wholesale orders are much easier to manage than a steady stream of smaller orders.
Where can we purchase your work?
I have my work on my own online shop as well as an Etsy store. I also stock in two lovely shops in Edinburgh – An Independent Zebra and Scottish Design Exchange.
Website – www.thecuriouscactus.com
Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/thecuriouscactus/
Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/thecuriouscactus
