In 2019 I celebrate 10 years of making custom jewellery so I thought I would record the event and publish my highlights and favourite jewellery items from each year.
2009 - The Beginnings of Shpangle Jewellery
In 2005, after spending 20 years as a systems engineer I decided to make a positive change in my life and become a full time house husband and carer for our son. A few years later in 2009, our son was starting school and I contemplated starting a business.
I had always had an artistic side and wanted to develop this further; I was also interested in taking everyday objects and turning them into pieces of art and hence Shpangle Jewellery was born.
I decided to use resin as a medium for my jewellery and my first items of jewellery incorporated sweets and other small items such as fabric, flowers, confetti and even bubble-wrap. These were sold at local craft fairs and at my local market.
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| Resin pendant containing a Jelly Tot sweet |
This was one of the first pendants I made, an orange jelly tot sweet and seed beads made into a resin pendant.
2010 - Name on Rice Jewellery
The previous year was mainly devoted to making and expanding my range of resin jewellery. I decided to expand this range into another form of jewellery and began to learn the art of rice writing – The writing of names onto grains of rice.
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| Name on rice jewellery |
This saw my name on rice jewellery appear in a short film by Canon, showcasing their macro lenses.
2011 – Jewellery Incorporating Hair or Ashes
Throughout the last couple of years I had received many requests to incorporate sentimental items (flowers, photos and other small objects) into jewellery. However this year was the beginning of what I became reputable for; preserving hair from horses, pets and loved ones into items of keepsake jewellery.
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| Keepsake Jewellery for Hair |
My lock of hair jewellery was featured later this year in a Daily Mail newspaper article and I was also interviewed by Radio 4 as part of their documentary about remembrance jewellery.
After many requests later this year, I expanded the range of jewellery for hair to also incorporate ashes.
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| Keepsake Jewellery for Ashes |
Both the hair and ashes jewellery has become extremely important to me and I am extremely grateful for those people that have entrusted me with something so sentimental and important to them.
2012 - Custom Made Paperweights
My custom made paperweights were developed to accommodate the many requests I received for preserving larger items. The paperweights were also ideal for those people who wanted to display the sentimental item rather than having an item of jewellery.
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| Custom Made Paperweights |
2013 - Magazine Article
In 2013 a lovely article about Shpangle Jewellery was featured within a magazine. The article appeared in the ‘Bunny Mad’ magazine
and was part of a special feature about coping with pet loss.
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| Shpangle Jewellery Magazine Article |
This article means so much to me; it was the first time that I had been featured in a magazine. To be chosen to be part of this subject made me realise even more how important my jewellery is to people.
2014 – Lovely Customer Feedback and Gifts
I always feel over the moon whenever I receive lovely customer feedback for my work and it is one of the main reasons that I make the items; knowing that I have made somebody happy is so important to me.
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| Customer Thank You Gifts |
In 2014 I received through the post a gift of chocolates, wine and a thank you card for making an item of jewellery. So extremely thoughtful and I will never forget this act of kindness.
2015 - Hedgehog quills
From the numerous items of jewellery and paperweights that I made in 2015, I tried to think of one item that sticks out in my mind. A very difficult decision however it has to be this pendant containing hedgehog quills.
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| Hedgehog Quill Pendant |
This was the first and only time that I have worked with hedgehog quills and incorporated them into a necklace.
2016 - Pandora Style Beads
After many hours of experimentation in 2016 I finally discovered a way of incorporating either hair or ashes into Pandora style beads. This became another popular way of preserving both hair and ashes into an item of jewellery.
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| Custom made Pandora style beads |
2017 – Jewellery for Teeth
The year 2017 saw me produce my first pendant containing a tooth! After several years making jewellery for ashes, flowers, hair etc I am surprised that I have not done this sooner (i.e. keepsakes for a child’s first tooth, puppy tooth jewellery etc).
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| Jewellery containing a tooth |
2018 - Rings
In 2018 I expanded the range of rings available for holding ashes and locks of hair. I now supply seven different styles of sterling silver rings for ashes/hair.
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| Custom made rings for hair or ashes |
2019 – Sterling Silver Jewellery Range
This year has seen me release a new range of sterling silver pendants for ashes, hair and other keepsakes. I can now make the sterling silver pendants in most shapes, including hearts.
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| Sterling silver pendants for hair or ashes |
More sterling silver pendant shapes will be released in 2020 and I look forward to the next 10 years of Shpangle Jewellery!
Mick
