I was born and raised in Romania, and trained to be an engineer at Politehnica University in Bucharest. I carved out a successful career for myself working in the automotive industry, where my role involved developing and testing the electronic systems of cars.
I loved my work, but sadly didn’t enjoy spending time at my workplace. I was the only female engineer on my team and often felt sidelined and isolated.
In 2017, my company offered me a placement at their premises in France. I speak fluent French so thought it would be a great opportunity. The contract was three months long and I expected to be back at my old job before the end of the year. But things didn’t quite work out that way.
After I’d worked the three months I was asked to stay for six, and after this my contract was extended to a year.
When it finally came to moving back, I was too settled in France to want to make the move back to my old life. I had a partner, my own apartment close to Versailles. Best of all the team in France were great – I felt part of things and really enjoyed my work.
I was offered a job that enabled me to stay in France long-term and jumped at the chance.
As well as my more methodical engineering skills, I’ve always loved being creative. If I had one criticism of my life back then it would be that working 8-5 each day in the Paris office left me little room to explore my creativity.
Cristina Urzicaru
However, during the Covid pandemic everything changed. Like many, I was forced to work from home and had a lot more free-time on my hands.
I stumbled across a video on calligraphy and found it inspiring. Having always loved beautiful writing, I bought a pen and ink and started to have a go.
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There were training courses online and I began to develop my craft further.
Then, when in-person classes started to run again, I travelled to Paris and took evening classes to perfect my new skill.
Proud of my calligraphy, I started to post some of my work online on Instagram and was buoyed by the response. People were really positive, encouraging me and commenting that the work was beautiful – it was really motivating.
Then something surprising happened: people started to ask me to do calligraphy for them, and offered to pay. I was surprised – I hadn’t thought about monetising my hobby, but the idea of doing something I enjoyed so much and being able to earn money at the same time seemed like a dream come true.
Gradually I began to take on projects, writing invitations, certificates or other documents, working around my existing role.
I set myself up as a micro-entrepreneur and officially started my small business, Litera Avenue. To my delight, I began to get regular work simply through my Instagram page and word of mouth.
While things in the car industry picked up again post-pandemic, like many I found my working practices had changed. For the first time I had the opportunity to work from home rather than commuting to the office five days a week.
Cutting out the commute meant I had more free time and more energy – and I was able to plough this into my calligraphy work and continue with my ‘side-hustle.’
While working as an engineer engages my brain and is interesting and challenging, calligraphy taps into another side of me. Doing both gives me a sense of completion.
Working a full-time job and running the calligraphy business on the side might seem like a lot. But being in charge of my own workload means I can take on more during quiet periods at my day job and say no to projects if it’s a busy time.
I’m often asked whether I might one day aim to take my calligraphy business full time, but while I can see the appeal it’s not something I’m looking to do.
Running a business comes with a lot of stress, and right now I find working on my calligraphy relaxing. I wouldn’t want to put pressure on myself and take the joy away from my work.
Now I can do it with passion – if I get clients, that’s great. If I don’t, it’s fine too. I don’t have to depend on it to survive.
Eight years ago, I was travelling each day to a job I didn’t enjoy. Now my work is fulfilling, and I feel as if I have a great work/life balance. My temporary contract led to a completely new life!
