How I Started NDC Creations | My Laser Engraving Journey

8 min read

How I Started NDC Creations: From Graphic Designer to Laser Engraving Artist

From being a stay-at-home mum designing behind a computer, to discovering a new creative world through laser engraving.

NDC Creations didn’t start with a business plan. It started with a box — one that sat unopened for more than a month. Inside was an Atomstack A24 Pro laser engraving machine my husband had bought me, encouraging me to explore something completely new. At the time, I had no idea that opening it would eventually lead to my first market stall at Green Park Station in Bath, my own website and social pages, and a summer spent travelling the UK with a car full of stock, a gazebo and my laser engraving equipment. But that’s exactly what happened, and this is where the story begins.

Before NDC Creations

I’ve always been creative. For years I worked as a graphic designer, creating logos, flyers, campaigns, branding and artwork for businesses — there was something deeply satisfying about turning an idea into something visual. But life changes. I became a mum, and my creativity increasingly happened from behind a computer, squeezed in around everything else that needed doing. I was still designing, but something was missing. The artist in me was still there — I just wasn’t giving her enough room. I wanted to create something I could actually hold. Something physical and personal. I just didn’t know yet where that feeling would take me.

My Husband Believed in Me

The idea of laser engraving came into my life through my husband. He knew how much I loved designing and believed I could take those skills beyond the screen and turn my artwork into something physical, so he bought me an Atomstack A24 Pro. It was a thoughtful gift — and looking back, the first piece of a much bigger journey. But there was a problem: I didn’t open it. For more than a month, it sat in its box. I was excited by the possibilities, but nervous too. What if I couldn’t figure it out? What if it was too complicated, and I wasn’t actually any good at this? It’s easy to imagine doing something new when it’s still just an idea — actually opening the box makes it real. So I kept putting it off. Until December.

The Reason I Finally Opened the Box

December was approaching, and with it, our wedding anniversary — the 22nd, and our 15th year together. I wanted to give my husband something special, not something bought off a shelf but something that came from me. That gave me my reason. I decided to make him an anniversary gift using the machine, and finally opened the box. I had no idea in that moment that I was opening more than a machine — I was opening the door to something completely new.

Learning One Piece at a Time

Opening the box was one thing; putting the machine together was another. There were parts everywhere and I’d never assembled or operated anything like it before. So I took it step by step — reading the instructions, working out what went where, with no expert standing beside me. Eventually it was assembled and sitting in front of me. Then came the real question: how on earth do I use this thing?

My background was graphic design, not laser engraving. I understood artwork, typography and layout, but knew almost nothing about laser settings, speeds, power levels or how to prepare artwork for a laser specifically. So I taught myself — a lot of it late at night, after my son was settled and the house was finally quiet. I’d watch a tutorial, pause it, try the technique myself, get it wrong, and go back and try again. I learned how different materials reacted to the laser and experimented with settings until I understood why one engraving worked beautifully and another didn’t. Some results were great, others were terrible, but every mistake taught me something, and slowly the machine started to make sense.

From a Design on My Screen to Something I Could Hold

Then came the moment that made the late nights worth it. I created my artwork, prepared it for the laser, set everything up, and pressed start. I watched the laser trace the design, slowly bringing to life something that had only existed on my screen — and this time, I was making it for someone I loved. That was when I understood how powerful the combination of graphic design and laser engraving could be. For years I’d created artwork digitally; now I could turn it into something real, something someone could keep, something that could become part of a memory. I wasn’t just designing anymore. I was creating.

One Anniversary Gift Became Something Bigger

That one gift raised a bigger question: what else could I create? Personalised gifts, wedding keepsakes, birthday presents, memorial pieces, something for a new baby or an important milestone — the possibilities felt endless. Laser engraving let me combine two sides of myself, the designer and the artist, in a way I’d never experienced before. And I loved it.

Very early on, I knew I didn’t just want to put names on generic products. I wanted to design artwork from scratch, experiment with fonts and materials, and make sure every finished piece felt like it had been created specifically for the person receiving it — because personalisation isn’t really about adding a name, it’s about adding meaning. A simple wooden box can become a keepsake. A small engraved item can remind someone of a person they love. That became the foundation of what I wanted NDC Creations to be.

Could This Become a Business?

Making something for my husband was personal. Selling something to a stranger, and letting them decide whether they liked what I’d made, was a different thing entirely — and honestly, it scared me. I’d spent years behind a computer, and now I’d have to step outside that comfort zone. I decided to start small, but first I made one more important decision: before my first market at Green Park Station, I bought a smaller, more portable machine — the xTool F2 — that felt manageable to take out into the world. It was easier to learn and operate, and it gave me the confidence to picture NDC Creations outside my home, meeting customers and demonstrating what I could do.

My First Market — Green Park Station, Bath

My first real step into selling came during the Christmas season at Green Park Station in Bath. No exhibition stand, no elaborate display, no team — just a table, a chair, my products and me, hoping somebody would stop. Looking back, I can see how much I still had to learn. But that little table mattered enormously, because for the first time, the things I’d been designing and making at home were sitting in front of real people, who could pick them up, ask questions, and tell me what they liked. And then people started buying them. Someone I’d never met had looked at something I designed and made, and decided it was worth buying. That was when NDC Creations stopped being an idea and started being a business.

Building the Brand — and Taking It Online

I quickly realised that making products was only one part of building a business — I needed a brand too. My graphic design background became a real advantage as I worked on the logo, colours, fonts, product photography, packaging and eventually my website, figuring out what I wanted NDC Creations to represent: creative, personal, thoughtful, genuinely designed — not just another personalised gift shop.

Then came social media. I set up NDC Creations on TikTok, Instagram and Facebook under @ndccreationsuk, and suddenly had a whole new skill set to learn — photographing products, filming, writing captions, building an audience from scratch, with no marketing team, no photographer, just me learning as I went.

The Work Customers Don’t See

Making a product is only one part of running a small business. Behind every sale is stock to count and check, artwork to prepare, engraving, cleaning, checking every piece, photographing everything, writing product descriptions, updating stock, packaging orders and reordering materials — and then doing it all again. It wasn’t glamorous, and it wasn’t always easy, but watching it all slowly come together was deeply satisfying.

Finding Myself Again

Looking back, the biggest thing NDC Creations gave me wasn’t a business — it was a part of myself back. After years of being a mum and working from behind a computer, I stepped outside again: to meet people, stand behind a market stall, show them what I’d made, and listen to what they thought. Somewhere along the way, I found my artist again. The graphic designer was still there, but now I had another creative outlet — learning materials, learning a machine, turning digital artwork into physical objects, and discovering how much I loved making things with my hands. Laser engraving had taken my creative side to a completely new level.

And Then Came the Next Challenge

By this point, I had the machine, the basics of engraving, a brand, a website, social pages, and my first steps at Green Park Station behind me. But I was still mostly working from home, and I realised something: I couldn’t just sit and wait for people to find me. If I wanted people to discover NDC Creations, I needed to go out and meet them.

That meant loading everything I’d built into my normal car — the stock, the tables, the gazebo, the equipment, and eventually the laser engraving machine itself — and driving to events to see what happened. I had no idea how much the next stage would push me outside my comfort zone. But I was ready. NDC Creations was about to leave the house, and that’s when my real adventure began.