Ley Holloway

Jewellery

Vintage Beadery is the name under which Ley Holloway makes jewellery.

Based on the North Devon coast, the sea is both a source of materials and an inspiration for the designs.

Using sea glass, beach ceramics, vintage and modern beads, vintage lace and recycled jewellery, the pieces are unique and entirely hand made. The beading techniques used are needle weaving methods using mostly Brick Stitch. This is a time consuming method, where each bead is attached one at a time using needle and thread, resulting in a ‘fabric’ made from beads. The sea glass and other materials used for the pendant pieces have mounts made by stitching beads tightly around them onto a backing material. Almost all the pieces have a leather backing.

More recently Ley has begun to make pieces from copper with silver fused to it’s surface, as well as silver clay.

Ley is happy to make pieces to commission, either using a piece of sea glass you have yourself or a piece from her collection. Ley is also very open to any ideas you might have for jewellery that are within her skills to make. Perhaps a bridal piece made from offcuts of fabric from the bride’s dress.