Meet the Maker

I’m Fiona and I am the maker behind FG Artisan Designs.  I have been creating for around 20 years but in June 2022, I decided it was time for a new adventure which was making costume jewellery.  A few months later, I decided I wanted to offer my handcrafted, unique, one-of-a-kind costume jewellery to everyone.

Aside to jewellery making, I am actually an artist.  The work I create usually comes from my ‘feelings’.  My artwork is usually done with acrylics, I do also work with ink occasionally but I do like to experiment with other mediums from time to time.  During the first lockdown, I felt I needed to try something different so I tried my hand at a bit of sewing, making a few tote bags for birthday gifts.  I enjoyed sewing but I felt I needed to learn something completely new.  I started to investigate recipes for organic body products.  I realised that I really enjoyed the whole process from finding a recipe to creating my own products.

As time went on, I began to see just how fed up people were feeling because of the lockdowns and the fact that most shops were closed meaning they were unable to purchase their favourite products.  Because of this, I decided to make some of my family and friends pamper gift sets that included my organic products as a pick-me-up.  People saw these products in my pamper sets and wanted to purchase their own.

The process to be able to sell my organic body products was unfortunately too complicated and expensive as there is so much to it.  I ended up feeling fed up but found other things to keep me busy and one of those was jewellery making.  I didn’t think I had the skills to create jewellery but I gave it ago and found I had a gift for it.  I love making jewellery, the creativity of the materials, the feel of wire and clay as you work with it and I love figuring out what accessories and beads fit. 

The main design feature for all of my jewellery is that I ‘feel’ what the wire or clay wants to be and I ‘follow’ that feeling which has allowed me to produce from wonderful individual pieces.  People started to comment on the jewellery I was wearing and asking where I bought it from.  When they found out I made it, they where asking if they could buy some.  It wasn’t long for these people to start recommending me to their friends and then them coming to me asking to buy a piece of my jewellery.  This made me start thinking about making my jewellery a business and that is where FG Artisan Designs came about.