Audrey Vance making newspaper headlines!
“Unique business makes precious dress a part of your home”
Written by Margaret Roddy for the Dundalk Argus Wednesday July 10th 2013
Of all the outfits which a woman will own, her wedding dress is the one which has the most memories. Yet most wedding dresses languish packed away at the back of the wardrobe or in the attic.
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Now, Dundalk-born artist Audrey Vance (nee McGuinness), has come up with a novel idea to give the wedding dress pride of place in your home, as she turns wedding day photographs into a timeless one-off piece of art.
“The idea came about after I was packing away my own wedding dress,” says Audrey, who now lives in bray, Co. Wicklow. “I loved my dress so painted a picture of it and hung it up. Friends admired it and wanted one for themselves and I decided to start selling them.”
Audrey who attended St. Peter’s NS Dromiskin and St.Louis, before studying art in Belfast, has worked as a designer for many years. “I always drew and painted for a hobby, it’s my joy,” she explained.
As her friends saw the painting which she had done of her own wedding dress, the requests started to come in for her to do more.
And thus, a new business was born.
As well as promoting her unique artworks on Facebook, she has just launched her website: www.weddingdressink.com, providing a bespoke, hand-drawn pen and ink illustration that is finished with three layers of Indian black ink with the option of a handmade locally sourced frame.
Orders for Audrey’s work have come from far-flung shores but it is the local market , which remains her focus. ” I love the interactivity of dealing with people, especiallyromantic husbands, because they are buying a guft for someone they really love and they will fo to any lengths to get you the picture.”
All Audrey needs is a photograph of the bride in her dress and, even better, with some photographs of the accessories that ccan also be incorporated into the finished product. “By adding these, this makes the illustration truly unique to each bride.” she added.
Generally the process takes up to 28 days from start to finish but Audrey can accommodate special rushed orders by request or gift vouchers are available too.
A mounted illustration costs from just €295. To see a gallery of Audrey’s work log onto www.weddingdressink.com. You can also contact her on Facebook on facebook.com/weddingdressink or on Twitter @weddingdressink.
