Great Dame: Lee May Foster-Wilson
Lee May Foster-Wilson is an artist and maker of lovely things who lives by the sea in deepest darkest Cornwall. She studied Fine Art Painting at the University of Brighton, and began making and selling work under the name Bonbi Forest a couple of years after graduating. About five years ago she began making and selling hand-screen-printed t-shirts for her friend Natasha Khan’s band, Bat For Lashes, and since then has branched out into all sorts of lovely t-shirts for men and ladies, as well as accessories, jewels, art prints, cards and other bits and pieces that she’s collaborated on with other musicians and artists. She also has a brilliant blog where she’s currently in the middle of The 29 Project, an attempt to photographically document every day of the last year of her 20s!
The allure of handcrafted objects seems to have risen a lot amongst younger people in the past few years. Having exhibited your wares at lots of craft fairs, is this something you’ve noticed? And what would you put it down to?
I have been showing my work at fairs for about five years now and I definitely noticed a shift in the kind of work that is available, even in that short space of time. When I started selling, it seemed to me that work was either geared towards a more gallery based crowd (glass, ceramics, furniture etc) or the kind of crafts that have been around for a long time (traditional styles of knitting or felting etc) depending on the kind of fair I was at.
I think the change and the draw of younger people has a lot to do with the internet and more specifically the rise of ‘easy to set up’ shops on Etsy and Folksy etc. The internet has taken a lot of the legwork out of selling your handcrafted items and the fact that many more people are making and selling items straight out of school or college can be attributed to the fresh and more modern takes on traditional crafts. I think it is very exciting!
If money, material and time were no object and you could pour your efforts into one dream mega-project, what would it be?
Oh goodness! Well, I have so many projects I want to get started on…this is really difficult to answer! I find that a lot of my time is taken up keeping an eye on my online shop and making multiples of things to sell so I can make a living, which although I love, doesn’t allow me to make and create new things as often as I would like.
I think if money, material and time were no object I would spend a good chunk of time really exploring the nitty gritty of my many ideas for bigger pieces that I have swimming around in my head and making them, rather than leaving them to fester in my sketchbooks! Which would be a bit like being back at art school but without the student debt, grotty house and general thrifty lifestyle I suppose…
You’ve gone from printing t-shirts in your spare bedroom to having your own studio and shop - was it a hard transition? Did you learn any specific lessons that you’d pass on to anyone else trying to start their own business?
My first online shop was made with the help of my then-boyfriend (a chap called Mark who is now my husband and a freelance web designer) while I was still printing tees on the dining room table. My little site at the time was given a great kick start when I started selling the Bat For Lashes tees there and it me realise that making and selling things was something I could do as my career.
I was working part time at that time when I started Bonbi Forest and was actually forced into making the leap to full time through a couple of things that happened around that time - moving from Brighton back to Cornwall where jobs are few and far between, and also my brother having a serious accident abroad meaning I had to be around to look after my family’s extensive menagerie of animals while they were away for a long time - so it wasn’t a transition I was able to ponder too much which was probably a good thing!
I think what that taught me is that sometimes you just have to go for it. In my case I had no choice, so if Bonbi Forest didn’t make me money then I wouldn’t have any at all. In the end, the massive upheavals that frightened me at the time probably ended up being the things that have helped me the most!
From reading your blog and The 29 Project, it seems as though memories are an integral part of your work. What are the other vital components that go into your designs?
Yes, I think memories are quite a big part of my work, wanting to capture things that I have seen and done or thought about so even if I forget them, they will be brought back to me through images that I have managed to get down in photographs or on paper.
Longing and desire also play quite a big role in my work and I find that things I am thinking about often, pop up into my work and designs. At the moment it is horses and houses - I have just sold my horse (which is heartbreaking stuff indeed!) and really want to own my own house!
I am also drawn to motifs of nature and patterns and lots and lots of animals. I like the meditative process of pattern making and that things in nature so often replicate themselves, such as veins on a leaf being so similar to capillaries in lungs, or ice patterns looking like feathers. It baffles me and fascinates me!
There’s an interesting contrast between the two most creative sides of your life - horseriding (we’re guessing, we are not horsey ladies) is a very precise sport with targets to be hit and fences to be jumped, whereas your design work leaves you utterly free to do what you want. Whereabouts do you fall between being absolutely carefree and utterly controlled?
Ha, well I have just sold my horse of seven and a half years, but I still ride and compete another horse on a regular basis. I compete in dressage competitions which doesn’t involve jumping, but requires you to train the horse to react to precise instructions and perform different movements correctly.
Actually, the two worlds work well together for me as since most of my life is spent living and breathing Bonbi Forest, getting outside with the horses is an utterly different kind of experience. When you are training a horse you can’t let outside thoughts or niggles creep in, you have to be totally focused on what you are doing so you don’t accidentally confuse them, which makes it a really great head clearer… especially after a training session when you can go for a good gallop, there’s nothing like it for freshening the mind!
The Great Dame Q&A
Who’s your greatest dame - real life, fictional, sleb or otherwise?
This is so hard to answer, there have been lot’s of lady characters that have seriously influenced me, so at the risk of sounding cheesy I am going to have to say my mum!
I think the path she chose for her life has been reflected in mine to a great extent. She and my dad have never had conventional jobs either and have always worked for themselves. My mum used to make and sell and set up and sold her own business in her twenties. She has also recently been using her graphic design roots in her and dad’s business and has learned Photoshop in her sixties, which is no mean feat!
She has been really encouraging with my Bonbi Forest endeavors and has helped me so much with managing the horse side of my life alongside running the business. I can’t thank her enough.
If you could go back and give your 16 year old self one bit of advice, what would it be?
Stop spending so much time in the canteen spying on the sporty boys and go and spend more time in the art room with that boy Mark, there will be multiple benefits to this…
What’s the finest song that’s ever floated into your delicate lady ears?
I love music so much and there are so many that make me think of amazing times, but I think the one that always makes me go “eeeee!” is Fleetwood Mac’s ‘Everywhere’. Mark and I had it as the exit song from our wedding and when it started everyone went “Ahhh!” and when I hear it I always think of that and it makes me smile. Gawd, I’m so soppy!
What’s your most famed rant against?
I have racked my brains about this and really don’t think I have ever ranted about anything! Of course I get angry about political stuff like everyone does, but on the whole I’m not a very angry person at all. When I was a much littler bean, I once smashed up my brother’s entire Lego space fleet because he dared touch my Lego castle… does that count?!
Where are you happiest?
Sat on the sofa next to my husband, sketchbook in my lap, a pencil drawing a horse in one hand, glass of red in the other and something awful like Eastenders on the telly in the background. Cool aren’t I?
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