About Us
Hi, I'm Carrie...
I'm the creative director and founder of Carrie Elspeth Jewellery. (My middle name is Elspeth just in case you were wondering). After completing a degree in Art History, then spending a year travelling around parts of Asia, Australia and New Zealand I couldn’t wait to get home and start my own business.
I first started selling jewellery in 1999 from a single room studio in rural South Wales. My passion was making colourful jewellery, that would hopefully make people smile either by wearing it themselves or through receiving my pieces as a gift.
Since 1999 all my jewellery has been designed by me, and handmade in Wales by my team of highly skilled outworkers. Over the last 25 years I have sold to gift shops, museums, boutiques and other specialist retailers in the UK and beyond. It’s awesome to know that some of my very first retailers still buy from me today and I believe it’s down to not only the jewellery itself, but to my commitment to outstanding customer service. One thing Carrie Elspeth Jewellery has over my peers is that because my products are made by us, I dispatch full orders very quickly.
Before travelling I worked for year in a gift shop in Cambridge where I formed an insightful understanding of the challenges of selling gifts, display, pricing and delivering a customer experience that would keep them coming back week after week. I have used this experience as motivation ever since.
I have won numerous awards over the years including Welsh Woman of the Year, Young Entrepreneur of the year at a global business award ceremony held in Bulgaria and was even invited to meet the Queen in 2004 to celebrate British Design. Within the gift industry my products have won ‘Gift of the Year’ several times, and my company has been a finalist in “Best service to the independent retailer” award at "The Greats" no less than eight times. Most recently I won Creative Business of the year at the Vale Business Awards in South Wales.
I am so proud of my team without which there would be no Carrie Elspeth Jewellery. I’ve got team members who have worked with me for over 20 years and I am still in touch with some of my team who have flown the nest and moved on to other exciting opportunities, even setting up businesses of their own. (it was amazing seeing many of them at my 25th anniversary celebration recently)
I love seeing people out in the street or on TV wearing my jewellery, nothing is more satisfying and I’ve had some truly fulfilling conversations with fans of my designs and hearing about their favourite pieces.