For youngsters everywhere, the start of the new school year likely meant going wild in a stationery shop. To be honest, I’ve never outgrown the thrill of buying wonderful new notebooks!
And, on this topic, meet Blue Mackay, a stationery purveyor extraordinaire. Blue is an entrepreneurial 24-year-old who started her business, Tied Fates, from her bedroom during the pandemic. She was in her first year at the prestigious Manchester College of Fine Art when the country went into lockdown, and she returned home to stay with her parents in Chelmsford, Essex.
A Harry Potter fanatic, rather than re-read the series again and again, she began illustrating her favourite scenes. Then, having unearthed a vast stack of blank notebooks, she had a brainwave…
She taught herself how to book bind on YouTube (isn’t it amazing just what can be taught online!) and began binding her beautifully illustrated prints onto the notebook covers by hand. To her utter amazement, after popping them on Etsy, there was an immediate clamour to purchase her designs – and Tied Fates was born.
But why Tied Fates? Blue has always had a penchant for mythology and witchcraft and had, many years earlier, begun work on a painting of The Moirai (The Fates in Greek mythology). Needing a name for her Etsy shop, she landed on ‘Tied Fates’.
Blue marvelled that, “I never imagined ‘Tied Fates’ would still be something I was working on many years later. As the orders came in, I was standing in the Post Office queue every day and I simply couldn’t believe what was happening. All these parcels I was sending out.
“And that’s when Warner Bros. took an interest and told me to stop. I was thrilled when I received a cease and desist letter from them as it meant that they’d noticed me and my designs. I suppose it was a bit naughty of me,” she laughed, “but quite honestly, I never even thought about selling the notebooks until suddenly I was being asked to.”
Blue’s parents are both accountants and at that time were quite sceptical about her penchant for the goth way of life. With heavy silver chains around her neck, fingers adorned with rings, and nose and ear piercings, she certainly looks the part. But with her business booming, perhaps Blue had absorbed more accountancy lore than she’d realised.
And so, having completely sold out of her original Harry Potter style notebooks, Blue decided to go for it, and with a little monetary help from her Mum, purchased an expensive laser printer.
The ideas were bursting from her brain. Literally working around the clock, Blue’s Zodiac notebooks, handbound pads with catchy slogans, and lavishly illustrated bookmarks took centre stage as she threw caution to the wind and booked a stall at Cressing Temple Fair – somehow persuading her Dad to help.
Blue said, “It was a little galling that most visitors seemed to assume it was the other way round – that it was Dad’s stall and I was just helping!”
Luckily, when I discovered Blue’s stall at the fair, I didn’t make the same mistake and spent a long time drawn to her irresistible notebooks. I couldn’t decide between a Gemini notebook (my husband’s birth sign) and a Virgo one (mine), so naturally I bought both!
And, dear reader, knowing me and my love of books, you won’t be surprised to learn that I bought plenty of bookmarks too. As I seem to be operating an unofficial lending library, I also bought loads of Tied Fates’ library cards. You paste them inside book covers with your name and address on, so hopefully this will mean that my loaned out books return home.
Business was so successful that by the time the fair ended, Tied Fates was practically out of stock – and that was with Blue working around the clock to replenish it.
“Takings went through the roof and I’m even collaborating with Soctopus, who were also exhibiting, for my very own witchy-type socks,” Blue told me excitedly.
Tied Fates is still very much Blue’s baby. Her bedroom is her office and with a ‘no plastic’ ethos, she’s now expanding her range. With innovatively designed greetings cards, witchy notebooks, gorgeous bookmarks, to-do lists, and calendar organisers, the inventive stationery from Blue’s mind seems endless – I could (and did!) spend a fortune.
Tied Fates now has customers around the world – and orders are flooding in. Blue recently received a wholesale order from America, which literally stopped her in her tracks.
“It’s just taken off amazingly,” she gasped, “and although my website says ‘we’, it really is just me and my designs.”
If you’d like to browse Blue’s products, you can head over to the Tied Fates website – I’m sure you won’t be disappointed. Personally, I’ve discovered some new bookmarks that I really, really need!
Are you a stationery lover? Have you been inspired by Blue’s story? We’d love to hear from you in the comments below!