Pixie Dust and Pirates

Simple economics says that when demands outstrips supply, the value of the scarce item increases. For Terri Butler – and most parents out with their kids – this means paying for it, in time.

“I actually started [ my business] because I hate lineups. Everywhere you go, the lineups for face painting were incredibly long,” says Terri. “And, I have two small children, and a lot of the quality [of other face painters] wasn’t really good and I thought, 'I could do that!'”

That Christmas, Santa brought her a face painting kit and that was the start of a hobby that became a passion and, eventually,  a business. Now, Terri is a professional face painter and glitter tattoo artist, operating under the name Pixie Dust and Pirates.

Surprisingly, though she enjoyed singing and crafting in the past, visual arts were never her thing – until now. “The very first time I ever drew or artistically painted was on a face,” she says. But, she found that she had a natural talent for it, and she worked very hard to gain a high level of skill, finding YouTube tutorials at first, and then connecting with other face painters online.

“YouTube is my best friend. And there’s also online kind of a university called FABA TV that you can get a subscription to and a lot of the world’s best painters have classes on there,” says Terri. “And, last week, a world-class painter came to Calgary so I went for some training a couple of days.”