Where It All Began
My mother began making and selling her own handmade leather goods when I was very young, so I simply grew up with the natural acceptance that making and selling art was what I would do. It wasn’t a question of if I would create and sell my work—it was just part of life. Mum had a business name for her shop, so naturally, I thought I needed one too.
I was twelve years old when I first came up with the name Randam Art. I wanted a unique name that nobody else used. My mother’s shop name was a mix of names, which probably led me to try making something out of my own name. One day I found myself rearranging the letters of Miranda, shuffling them around until I landed on “Randam.” That’s why it’s spelled with an A, not an O. Also, since Rand has been my nickname since childhood, Randam Art seemed to fit me.
But what about the I?
My twelve-year-old logic had an answer for that: I didn’t need to put the I in the name because I was the person making everything. I was involved in all of it, so the I was already there, in a way. It made perfect sense to me at the time.
The Early Days
Around that same age, I started selling my handmade creations at a local Sunday market. By fourteen, I was designing stylish necklaces made with gumnuts and leather leaves, selling them wholesale to an upmarket boutique in a city about an hour away, and in my mum’s art and craft supply shop.
Randam Art was the name I used from those early days, and while the products I created evolved over the years, the name remained. My very first logo featured clip art of a unicorn inside a diamond shape—simple, black, no color. Back then, a black and white clip art logo was about as good as it got for the technology of the day. That logo has been modified and updated several times over the decades, most recently in December 2023—this time hand drawn and colored on my iPad. The contrast between that first simple clip art and what I can create now really reflects how far both the technology and my skills have come.
The Question of Change
Over the years, I often thought about changing the name. Should I have added the I somewhere to make it a true anagram? Raindam? Randaim? Ultimately, I figured I’d done okay for a kid just playing with letters.
But the idea of changing never quite felt right. I couldn’t come up with a better name, and as time went on, the prospect of making such a significant change became less and less appealing. I’ve had a website using the Randam Art name since 1996. There are literally thousands of photos of my work online bearing that name and various iterations of my logos.
Changing felt like it would be disloyal to my twelve-year-old self. And honestly, it seemed like a lot of work.
Three Countries, One Name (Almost)
Randam Art became a registered business name in three countries: first at home in Australia, then in the USA, and finally in Canada when I moved here in late 2018.
However, Nova Scotia’s naming authority wouldn’t let me register “Randam Art” without modification. Their reasoning felt ridiculous, but it wasn’t a fight I could win. I was forced to add descriptors, so the name became Randam Art Painted Light. I registered the domain paintedlight.ca to match, though I still maintained my original Randam-Art.com website.
I was never happy with the addition to the name. It pigeonholed me into one type of art—and while painting glass to create stained glass style art lamps is the majority of what I do, it’s not all I do. With “Painted Light” in the name, any other work I created felt like a side quest, and that always made me uncomfortable.
Around the same time, I lost my original Instagram account through no fault of my own—just a glitch in their system that couldn’t be fixed. I had been using randamart as my username across all platforms, but had to start over on Instagram as paintedlight. My social media accounts no longer matched, and that lack of continuity felt messy and bothered me.
Coming Full Circle
After much contemplation, I decided it was time to make a change. I’m loyal to my past decisions—sometimes stubbornly so—but it finally felt like the right time.
So after 45 years of using the name Randam Art, I’m moving forward under my own name: Miranda Jordan.
In a way, it’s like taking that anagram—Randam—unmixing it, and putting the I back in where it always belonged.
While I retain all rights to the images and information I’ve shared online over the years, and the old logos will still exist in the digital archives, moving forward I’ll be using my own name and my new logo.
My social media accounts are now unified under one username: @randmadeart across all platforms. Finding a username that fit me and was available everywhere was no small task, but since my nickname has always been Rand, this new name feels right. It’s also a great play on words—randmade/ handmade. My website is mirandajordan.ca and you’ll find me as @RandMadeArt on social media.
It feels right. It feels like me.