Meet the people who turned a hobby into a job

Meet the people who turned a hobby into a job

Throwaway society: Will Pearson has turned his boomeranging hobby into a business

There is an old saying: "Find a job you love and you will never have to work a day in your life."

For many, that idea might draw a snort of derision. But what if a favourite hobby could be turned into something that actually makes a profit?

The disruption caused by the Covid-19 pandemic, along with the rise of online retail, has created a whole world of serious side-hustles and businesses on internet marketplaces.

The BBC met three people who left their day jobs to concentrate on making money from their passion projects.

Jackie Bird was a high-flyer in the corporate world and now uses ribbons to make art

Jackie Bird spent her entire working life in the corporate world, where she ran her own award-winning business redesigning office spaces in London.

That worked well until the pandemic and lockdown, when offices emptied and it seemed everyone was working from home.

After the pandemic ended, going back to that line of work meant a 600-mile (966km) round trip from her home in Polperro, Cornwall, to London, which she said was "killing me".

"In April 2025, I decided to hang up my tool bag and follow my passion," Bird said.

"I sketch on to a canvas the outline of an image, and I can do that from people's photographs, and recreate them in ribbon form.

"It's quite abstract, like a pop art-type style, but using the medium of ribbon instead of paint.

"I did a few during the pandemic, but all I've been doing [recently] is commission after commission. I haven't really stopped in the last year.

"It's just amazing, I couldn't have wished for more. I didn't know this was going to be my outlet."

Tobias Kaye was inspired to create his unique instrument during meditation

Tobias Kaye cheerfully admitted he struggled to find his path in life.

He said: "I seemed so lost as a teenager. I couldn't see how I was going to work in this world, it just seemed mad to me and, the more jobs I did, the more difficult I found it."

Kaye, who now lives in Buckfastleigh, Devon, got into woodturning after working with a relative, and settled down to make hundreds and hundred of wooden bowls.

But the breakthrough came when he realised he did not need to add an extra string to his bow - but rather add strings to his bowls.

"One evening I was meditating on the side of my bed and this image of a string stretched inside a bowl appeared in front of me.

"Since then, I have felt guided... of having the vision and ideas to produce these instruments."

Kaye named the instruments Sounding Bowls and they are now sold for use in therapy to the NHS and hospitals all over the world.

He had even trained other makers to cope with the demand, he said, claiming: "They are unique in the history of world music.

"It has strings inside a circular wooden space with no sound board on the top.

"So, unlike a violin or a guitar, which is a box instrument, this is an open resonator, and the thinness of the wood, thinner on the bottom than a matchstick, and really strong on the outside to take 20 strings, it gives the sound."

Will Pearson still has the first boomerang he bought and now makes and sells them from his shop in Falmouth and online

Will Pearson was running a screen-printing workshop in Falmouth, Cornwall, when the Covid pandemic hit, leaving his business "decimated".

Pearson remembered: "I went down the beach, I was in a blind panic. I took my boomerang with me and then I had an idea about manufacturing them.

"I've always had a pipe dream to start a boomerang brand, to make my own boomerangs and try to sell them, because boomeranging is a lot of fun. I started when I was nine."

"I've always enjoyed it, when I get my boomerang out people are always intrigued by it and I thought: 'Maybe there's something here. Maybe we could rekindle an interest in it,' and that's what we're trying to do."

Pearson has now opened a boomerang shop in Falmouth, using his screen-printing skills to create T-shirts and to add a 1960s West Coast surf vibe.

"What takes a lot of my time is I am out in the field test flying boomerangs," said Will.

"I test fly every single boomerang to make sure it gives a complete return - if you've flown it right."