Tpel - an entrepreneur's story
From an article by LICC
Lindsay Seddon comes from upstate New York, met her husband at University when doing an Art degree, moved to the UK and took a job that paid the bills. In her spare time, she set up Tpel, a paper and press business that produces stunning, sustainable stationery.
She juggles many roles; artist, businesswoman, wife, and mother of three children. But whatever hat she’s wearing, she’s committed to working at her tasks with all her heart and for the Lord.
When she decided to design and hand press the invites for her own wedding, she also did stationery for friends, and friends of friends, and the ripple effect just kept going. From this small beginning that Lindsay’s business started to grow, both organically and exponentially. Her earnings from her day job allowed her to buy letter-pressing equipment, her spare bedroom became a studio space, and before long her creative hobby became an increasing part of her life. It is now a full-time business endeavour.
In the early days, she took a leap of faith and took part in a big, costly trade fair. Off the back of that, she connected with The White Company. They commissioned her to design and print bespoke greetings cards. She was still working from home and this meant thousands of sheets of paper in the dining room table needed to be packaged and sent. She then moved to a studio-shop in the centre of Chester. And she’s committed to using this space to bless and inspire others, taking on work experience students and advising fellow creatives looking to build businesses..
Lindsay continues to design and print bespoke wedding invites, luxury greetings cards, and wholesale stationery for small boutique businesses and big-name clients, including Daylesford Organic and the Royal Academy of Arts. In every task, she’s committed to making good work, using her hands to create beautiful designs that reflect the creativity of God.
Lindsay’s also committed to sustainable practices. She prints with vegetable-based inks and on paper that’s FSC certified, uses UK-based suppliers wherever possible, packages stationery in biodegradable sleeves, cleans equipment using natural ingredients, and repurposes packaging from suppliers. Her business is almost plastic free.
As an artist, she feels called to bless others through her creative outputs. But family comes first and that causes tensions with say, meeting client deadlines, paying overheads. She says, "It’s a journey, but I’m learning to lean into the Lord, to manage my time and prioritise tasks to make it manageable. Because I believe running a business is like gardening. There are different seasons – times to plant, propagate, water, trim, and wait. And I’m content that this is a season of maintenance not growth."
Read the full article here.
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From an article by LICC, 11/10/2023