My name is Dawn or Dawnie to my closest friends and I am the founder of Polly Red which began in 2010 as a hobby. I was a mum of 2 small kids and needed something to do that was just for me. I have always been a creative person, and as I had made the decision not to return to work until my children went to school, I decided to make some jewellery to sell at craft fairs and online and opened an Etsy shop. 

My early pieces were little kids name bracelets made with colourful beads and elastic for the next few years and I moved on to make jewellery with all kinds of stuff. Any profit I made from selling my items went on learning more techniques and in 2013 I went to evening class and did a silversmithing course. In 2013 I also entered a competition called the British Bead Awards and came second which I was hugely proud of. During this time I made loads of beady friends online and eventually taught wirework courses and wrote tutorials for two publications, Bead & Jewellery and Beads and Beyond.

Fast forward a couple of years and in 2015 I had moved towards making more sterling silver pieces and bought my first engraving machine. At the time is was a huge investment and a very steep learning curve but since I had a backround in IT (before kids) I was more than ready for the challenge. My early pieces weren't great and there was loads of trial and error involved but eventually I created some pieces I was happy to sell to customers.

Since then I have been gradually building  my range year on year to what you see in our store today. I still have lots more products in the pipeline and ideas for new things. Most of my best sellers come from friends and customers who contact me to ask "Can you engrave a _______?"
That's how our whistles started and they are still one of our best sellers to this day!