Dianna Dolphin-Trotman has had the good fortune of being able to transform a childhood hobby into an enterprise that allows her to continue to immerse herself in something that she loves whilst earning from it.
The owner of an enterprise called Proprietor of Enchanted Garden Floral Arts, situated at Lot 1 George Street, Werk-en-Rust, has been ‘dabbling’ in art and craft ever since she was a teenage student at the Linden Foundation Secondary School, her passion for ‘pretty things’ heavily influencing her gift choices. It was the same passion she says, and considerable boredom that led her to create a business in the first place which allowed for, apart from her entrepreneurial pursuit, the showering of gifts on her niece.
Before all this she was to be talked out of pursuing Art at the University of Guyana by a mother who was convinced that Art ‘couldn’t pay,’ so she settled for Tourism Studies.
Stabroek Business met with Diana on Saturday March 2 at the 4th Women Business Expo at the Pegasus Hotel, an event designed to help popularise emerging women-run enterprises. She had gone there to display and hopefully market the impressive range of ‘pretty things’ that she had brought to the show… a range of decorative hair accessories for little girls and grown-ups; tiny, decorative hair pins and dainty barrette clips adorned with miniature handmade flowers. There were, as well, the Kanzashi-inspired pieces, delicate-looking hair ornaments common in traditional Japanese hairstyles. No less eye-catching was her collection of hair bandeaus adorned with flowers and mimicking the Kanzashi adornment.
Beyond those, Dianna had also trotted out a range of necklaces, earrings and jewellery boxes. She would have liked as well, she said, to bring the collection of embroidered ladies hand purses on which she is still working. That, however, was for another time. But the range of her collection does not end there. There is also a line of broach bow ties for little boys.
We had encountered Diana on an important trading day, besides which the quaintness of her offerings had attracted a considerable level a curiosity. Still, she persisted in ‘doubling up,’ attentive to inquiries from persons who had stopped by her stall whilst evidently anxious to ‘sell’ her products through our story.
She spoke animatedly about her days as a UG Tourism Studies student, a one-time employee of the Ministry of Tourism as a Product Development Officer and a Reservation Agent at Iwokrama International Centre for Rain Forest Conservation and Development.
After the birth of her son in 2016, she and her husband decided that she would be a stay-at-home mother.
The opportunity to bring her creative skills to the fore came in 2017 when she wanted to afford her little niece a unique gift. With lots of time on her hands she decided to offer the child something which she had created herself. Browsing the internet she came across the hair bandeau idea and the Kanzashi adornment. The idea worked and her niece was delighted.
It also worked sufficiently enough to prompt her sister to persuade her to design and market more of such items. Marketing, however, was to prove a challenge…that was before she met and spoke with artist Patricia Helwig, a member of the Guyana Craft Association. Helwig agreed to share her stall at a Main Street art and craft bazaar with her and they spoke about the marketing of craft. At the end of the trading day she had earned $7,000.
That was the trigger that propelled her subsequent entrepreneurial pursuits. With savings of about $200,000 she purchased fabric and begun to design bandeaus. Shortly thereafter she secured permission from Republic Bank Ltd to operate a stall for one day outside the bank’s Water Street branch.
Dianna works from home and targets two displays per month on Water Street. She had become decidedly animated by the experience of the Pegasus ‘appearance.’ “My hands are full now as I have several orders to fulfil.” During the Women’s Business Expo she had distributed several calling cards and is hoping for encouraging feedback. She is hoping, as well, for a busy year ahead.
