Its all about the plastic! Swank is thought of, designed, made and packaged by me, Becky Wignell. From the start I wanted to create bright, statement jewellery which would stand out.
I started Swank in 2005 after finishing a Textile Art degree, needing an outlet for my
creativity, I decided to teach myself to make jewellery as it was
small enough to make on the kitchen table and people might buy it. I
approached a shop in Leeds and on online store and both said yes to
stocking my designs! Realising I was on to something, I got myself an
Etsy store and the business grew from there.
I started out
wanting to make jewellery entirely from pre-used products and made in
the UK exclusively. I started out making jewellery from 80s toys, but as
the business grew, people who wanted to buy wholesale often wanted a
lot of the same design which was very difficult to create from recycled
material. I ended up spending most of my time searching for particular
types of Lego man rather than designing!
When I learnt to design
for laser cutting it was perfect for me. I love plastic and bright
colours and the graphic way of designing really suited me. I love that
now I can simply draw whatever it is I want on a necklace rather then
having to trawl car boot sales to find one!
I am still very much
committed to everything being made in the UK, I use a small laser
cutting company in the UK, all my packaging is made by small UK
companies from recycled materials and I still hand make all the
jewellery.
I wholesale to shops across the globe, if you are interested in taking a peek at our catalogue please email me and I'll send it to you, [email protected]
