Posts in behind the scenes

Fun handmade wedding favours - customised bag charms!

handmade wedding favour pink heart Charm.jpg

When planning my wedding last year I wanted a fun, cute little wedding favour for our female guests. I had been looking for something unusual and something that the guests could take with them as a reminder of the day. The favour also needed to be lightweight and easy to transport as we were getting married in France. Not much to ask!! ;-)

After looking for several weeks online and not finding anything I liked, or that was within a reasonable budget, I decided to make something myself!

And that’s when I came up with the idea of the Shh Charmed Heart bag charms - I designed them for my wedding guests! I had a lot of fun creating all kinds of colour combinations - bright contrasting colours, pastels - metallics. It was exciting!

I also designed a little gift tag that accompanied each charm and placed them in a brightly coloured organza bag. You can see the process and the finished product below.

And you can see more bespoke bridal Shh by Sadie jewellery here, including the Charmed Heart charms.

If you’d like to order the Charmed Heart charms as wedding favours (or for another special occasion) they’re available in gold or silver hardware and beaded in your selection of colours. Pick a rainbow of colours, or choose simple white and gold - it’s your choice! Prices start at £10.

Sadie x

Explore more Shh news

bridal, custom orders, behind the scenes, Sadie's musingsSadie Hawker20 November 2018Comment

Bespoke bridal and bridesmaid jewellery - creamy pearls and Swarovski crystals

handmade wedding jewellery Oxford wedding

I always love working on personalised and bespoke orders and this bridal jewellery commission was beautiful!

Lucy wanted three sets of coordinating bridesmaid jewellery for one adult bridesmaid, one teen bridesmaid and one teeny tiny set for a much younger bridesmaid (unfortunately Obi the dog preferred a tux over a pearl necklace!!).

Lucy was planning a relaxed, elegant wedding in Oxford, with a traditional church ceremony and boat house reception (with punting!).

We discussed style and colour options, and she selected classic creamy pearls combined with Swarovski crystals with a rainbow aurora borealis lustre. She wanted three coordinating “plaited” pearl cuff-style bracelets, sterling silver pearl studs, and three mix and match single strand bracelets.

I used a combination of white, cream, peach and darker grey rainbow freshwater pearls, along with the Swarovski crystals, and I know I’m biased - but I think the bracelets turned out beautifully and complemented the navy bridesmaid dresses perfectly.

You can see more bespoke bridal Shh by Sadie jewellery here.

And if you’d like to chat about a custom made bridal or bridesmaid piece, click here. Prices begin at £15 for a single strand bracelet.

Sadie xx

Explore more Shh news

bridal, custom orders, behind the scenes, pearlsSadie Hawker1 November 2018

Handmade wedding jewellery - pearl and crystal bracelets for a French wedding!

Well here is a sneak peek into my very own wedding day and the jewellery I made for myself, my bridesmaids, and the VIP mothers of the bride and groom!

If you know me you may be surprised that I decided to make very simple, classic, neutral coloured jewellery for myself and my bridesmaids. I am never one to shy away from a colourful statement piece! However, my wedding decor theme was very colourful - bright pinks, blues, oranges, and so I wanted to tone down my jewellery because I didn’t want to look OTT and would have to live with any colour-clashing decisions for the rest of my life :D

Chris and I booked a 14th Century French chateau for our summer wedding and wanted a laid-back, elegant, wedding theme with splashes of colour. My bridesmaids were wearing bright jewel-toned blue dresses, and the flower girls were wearing pink floral dresses, and all would wear pink flowers in their hair and carry colourful bouquets.

And so onto the jewellery…

Baroque pearl and rose quartz bridal earrings

Antique Edwardian turquoise and diamond gold ring

For my own wedding day jewellery - I had intended to make my own chunky baroque pearl earrings, but then actually found my dream pair of rose quartz and pearl drop earrings online, so I bought them instead!

I would be wearing a large crystal hair comb and my antique turquoise and diamond ring, and so decided to make myself three pearl and crystal bracelets to wear with them on the big day.

(Non jewellery-related, but In case you love shoes as much as I do - I chose Betsey Johnson Blue Stela glitter bridal shoes in soft pink.) Click here to see more of the shoes I had on my wedding shoe shortlist!

For the mother of the bride and the mother of the groom, I made them both simple creamy freshwater pearl and glass crystal bracelets as part of their wedding day gifts.

For my Maid of Honour and bridesmaids - they each had two pearl and crystal 24 carat gold plated cuff bracelets, matching my own.

For the flower girls - both little Ivy and Bella wore matching pink and white peanut pearl bracelets - so cute and playful!

I didn’t get many photos of the jewellery on the actual day - oops! But you can get the idea from the below photos :-)

Are you planning for your wedding?

Sadie x

And here are some more wedding blog posts -

The wedding shoes I drooled over.
My handmade wedding favours - cute little colourful bag charms.
More Shh by Sadie wedding jewellery.

Explore more Shh news

bridal, custom orders, behind the scenes, Sadie's musings, pearlsSadie Hawker1 November 2018

Custom pearl bridesmaid bracelets and handmade Mother of the Bride pearl jewellery

Bespoke bridal jewellery pearl bracelets Devon

Here’s another recent bespoke bridal jewellery commission I worked on for the lovely Rebecca.

Rebecca wanted a set of freshwater pearl bracelets for her three bridesmaids and a matching one for herself, the beautiful bride! She also wanted a gift for the Mother of the Bride, a similarly-styled bracelet and necklace set for her mother.

Her wedding colour scheme was pastel yellow and pastel moss green to suit the English countryside themed wedding day, while the Mother of the Bride would be wearing a jewel-toned blue dress.

For her bridal and bridesmaid bracelets we selected a combination of freshwater and vintage pearls to complement the vintage style of her wedding theme. For her mother’s jewellery we again chose freshwater pearls, though we used chunkier baroque pearls. We added navy pearls with a rainbow lustre and a touch of Swarovski crystal sparkle to add glamour - you can never go wrong with a touch of Swarovski! :-)

It was lovely working with a bride who wanted to include colour in her bridal jewellery - I’m thrilled with how they turned out.

You can see more bespoke bridal Shh by Sadie jewellery here.

And if you’d like to chat about a custom made bridal or bridesmaid piece, click here. Prices begin at £15 for a single strand bracelet.

Sadie x

Explore more Shh news

bridal, custom orders, behind the scenes, pearlsSadie Hawker1 November 2018Comment

The beginnings of a small jewellery business part one... kitchen tables and Mighty Mighty Markets

Here I am at my very first market at Mighty Mighty Markets on Cuba Street, Wellington in 2011

Hi everyone!

This week has been a time of reflection for me. Today marks six years to the date that I released my first ever ‘official’ collection, Sueños del Sol. And on Friday I had the pleasure of talking to a whole lecture theatre (eek!) of final year marketing students at Plymouth University about Shh by Sadie and the journey that has brought me and my million beads to where it stands today.

In preparation for my talk I sat down and spent an afternoon trawling through my old Shh photo archives and, oh my goodness, it was amazing remembering some of the jewels I’ve made, markets I’ve attended, people I’ve worked with and all of the ups and downs along the way.

When I began teaching myself to make jewellery in 2011 I never dreamed that anything would come of it, let alone that anyone would buy it - it was simply a new exploration, a new hobby, and I enjoyed wearing the earrings and bracelets I’d made for myself.

Shh by Sadie handmade statement jewellery

Working full time in my ‘day job’, I soon started attending markets on Saturdays with my borrowed table cloth and vintage teacups and saucers to display my jewels on (the teacups often had more interest than the jewellery!). I just wanted to sell jewellery so that I could go home and make more. (Well, that hasn’t changed!)

I was also selling online via Etsy, and I still don’t know how I managed to actually sell anything with the terrible photos I took! I remember taking my first product shots late one Saturday night, on a badly lit kitchen table, balanced on teapots and teacups (the jewellery, not me), because I was so eager to get my Shh by Sadie Etsy shop up and open. Yet people did buy the jewellery (which was at that time mostly brooches made of felt and fabric, button and flower earrings, and simple bead earrings and necklaces), and often came back for more!

I ALWAYS appreciated it when my lovely friends visited me at markets and came and had a giggle with me :-)

Shh by Sadie at Matchbox Studios, Wellington

From there I went on to be stocked in my first few real shops - Rex Royale and Emma on Cuba Street, along with The White Room Gallery in Island Bay. Markets continued, stockists grew, and I was even featured in a few blogs, publications and the Mighty Mighty Market poster plastered across Wellington that I had to close my eyes every time I walked past because it was so hideous… :D

I’ve posted some photos of the early Shh days here - hope you enjoy looking at them as much as I did. You’ll see that there was always a love of pink! And a lot of skulls back then too!

If you remember any of these Shh jewels or markets, I’d love to hear from you or see your photos.

I’ll post the next phase of the Shh journey next week.

Sadie x