Co-Founders and Partners of Bleu de Toi handmade featured in Pepperdine Magazine

In addition to being entrepreneurs, Joshua and I are also fine artists and alumni from Pepperdine University together. The schools magazine recently did a feature on our dual lives and our recent success...

A husband-and-wife team of Seaver studio art alumni finds a middle ground between their creative passions and entrepreneurial pursuits.
By Gareen Darakjian
The double lives of Joshua ( ’07) and Hilary (’06) Dildine began the day of their engagement in July 2008. Both independently  successful fine artists with extensive portfolios and exhibited works, the couple put their heads together to come up with do-it- yourself options for their impending nuptials. They hatched the idea of creating original keepsake artwork that only two artists would think of when planning a wedding: a handdrawn, personalized fingerprint tree that they used as a guestbook at their  reception. “We wanted something that was really personal and collaborative,” says Hilary of their motivation. “It was a nice visual  representation of the day,” she recalls; the piece of art now hangs in their dining room at home.

Inspired by the local buzz around  their inventive idea and Hilary’s Pepperdine study abroad experience in France, the pair launched Bleu de Toi, “crazy for you”, and posted a few of their drawings on handmade marketplace Etsy.com. They sold out by the end of the day and have continued on the same track since March 2010. “There is something really neat about having something that has been touched by all of the people special enough to share their special day with,” explains Hilary of the company’s popularity. “We started a new trend in the wedding industry,” Joshua adds, “and it has grown like wildfire.”

The couple now splits their time between creating the expressive art of their training and the
commercial art that largely provides their livelihood....
(read more about our fine art endeavors and the rest of the article here: http://magazine.pepperdine.edu/index.php/2011/07/a-fine-balance/)