WHEN housewife and mother-of-four Jane Brown decided to go back to school, she didn't realise just how far it would take.

For already she is making inroads into the world of design after leaving college just seven months ago.

Jane, 48 creates panels, vases and light-fittings in a distinctive style out of plastic and perspex with plant material such as crocuses and leaves.

She graduated from the University of Central Lancashire with a first class BA in Surface Pattern Design with Crafts in June last year and her work has already been noticed by some major names in the design industry, including Max Fraser -- a renowned exhibitor of work in both London and New York.

However, until just a few years ago this was all just a distant dream for Jane, who left school aged 14 to go to catering college and later became a housewife and mother of four children, now aged between 15 and 26.

She said: "I always wanted to finish my education and felt I had missed out by leaving school so early. I really enjoyed helping my children, but realised I had a yearning to be something for myself. The best thing of all was when I had completed my dissertation and my children and husband Andrew all said how proud they were of me. They've all helped me make the best of what I can do."

Jane says the scenery around her home in Chatburn provides her with all the inspiration she needs but that her origins constantly prove a source of shock to her new contacts in London.

"It's where I come from, more than my age or background, that interests people," she said. "I don't think people down there know we exist!

"They are amazed when I talk about all the beautiful countryside I have on my doorstep here in the Ribble Valley."

One of the major places Jane's work is exhibited is in a shop in Kensington, near the Mall in London, leading her to comment: "I'm going up in the world and am now right by the palace, I wonder what the Queen thinks of my work?"