English jewellery makers, Christine and Julie Ashford, whose book, ‘Spellbinding Bead Jewellery’, was released in the UK, Australian and NZ at the end of 2008. The sisters established their company, Spellbound Beads, in 1984, where they gather beads from all over the world. The shop is supported by a website and the duo also travels to many of the major international craft shows. With Julie teaching in Japan, Christine took time out to tell us about their business, their work and their sublime book.

As a teenager Christine says both she and her sister suffered from the “nothing we’d wear in the shop” angst of many independent dressers. Too young to experience the punk movement but influenced by its spirit, the pair went with the idea of “doing it for yourself” though, Christine points out, “neither of us ever had a safety pin attached to our person!”

“When we started making jewellery out of charity shop beads and sheet metal other people started asking us about the pieces, so we took a stall at our local market selling the clothes and jewellery that we’d made,” she explains. “From there it just grew; charity shop beads gave way to trips to London where there were a few big bead shops that could supply us in quantity, then onto India, Venice and France to source directly from the manufacturers... finished jewellery somehow turned into selling the beads instead and teaching people how to make their own jewellery.”

The Ashford family tree is not peppered with jewellers and artists but Christine says her family did have a penchant for the sciences and “fiddling with objects”.  Their parents relaxed “by working with materials when at home” and the girls were encouraged to take an active interest.

“We played with textiles, grew crystal gardens, made sugar flowers and set found objects in special plastic,” she says. “Finally we were let loose with a jigsaw and a drill - not only useful for jewellery but we’re a crack team at the flat pack challenge and have built most of our shop fitments ourselves (with a little help from dad).”

When publishing house, David & Charles, approached the Ashfords after seeing their jewellery kits, Christine says she and Julie decided they’d like to do “something different” if they were to tackle a book. “We started by looking at figures from legend and fiction and came up with our own interpretations of their personalities and surroundings and designed the pieces around that... the result is a book packed full of projects and our minds are still whirring with the possibilities.”  The subtitle of the book is ‘Create enchanting jewellery inspired by myth and magic’.

“Constructive criticism” is how Christine wryly describes the method she and her sister used to agree on design ideas for ‘Spellbinding Bead Jewellery’. They would sit down and discuss the projects, sketch things out then separately go away and make up samples. After this they would get together and dissect what was and was not working with the pieces. “Julie is the main designer
and produces all the diagrams for the book and our kits,” says Christine. “I do some of the design and am the driving force that makes sure it all comes together... Fortunately our skills are complementary - we each know what the other does well.”

Because the sisters have a heavy and varied workload - their shop, the mail order business, teaching commitments and a heavy show schedule in the UK - Christine says they live quite “disjointed” lives and work can take place anywhere from 5am to 2am the next day.

“Many a meal over the last two years has been pushed to the side of the table while we discussed the merits of one Goddess against another,” she says of the book’s planning, “and curling up with a good book at the end of a show day was replaced by working up samples... Sometimes planning a day to work on a design works brilliantly because you mentally plan it all ahead and can’t wait to get started. Other times you do feel like the muse is on strike so you just have to walk away and come back to it later.”

Julie and Christine hit the road in the UK from September to December 2008 promoting their book. They create more than 20 new kit designs each year to launch at various bead shows and have started putting a series of project and technique sheets onto their website for free download.

For now they are concentrating on “the basics of the beader’s armoury” but will be adding more advanced projects in 2009. Next year is the business’ 25th anniversary so they hope to to run a special program of classes in the UK.

Name
Christine and Julie Ashford

Based
Staffordshire, England

Website
www.spellboundbead.co.uk [spellboundbead.co.uk]

Email
info@spellboundbead.co.uk

Please Login or Sign up to share, vote, favourite or comment.