My name is Sapphire, I’m 26 years old, I graduated in 2015 with a 1:1 in fashion from the Norwich university of arts. I went onto work as a design assistant at Ted Baker HQ in London, lived there for 5 months but found it a really lonely place. At the time, my mum and sister was talking about moving to Spain and because we are so close it was just too difficult for me so I made the decision to leave and came back to Norwich. It took me about a month to get back into employment.

I worked for a tailoring company for about a year in Norwich while saving to start my menswear brand which I no longer work for now. I started a men’s company making and selling t-shirts in Norwich for about 2 years but I just remember thinking ‘do I want to do this forever’ and the answer was no. It wasn’t something that I could be personally passionate about so I asked myself, what am I passionate? What do I love? What can I make for me? That’s when I started Sapphire Frills.

I now hand-make statement earrings from polymer clay taking lots of inspiration from animals. My favourite animal is a leopard and I use a hell of a lot of leopard print in my collection so I also decided to donate every month to WWF to help protect Amur leopards in the wild. 

There is a lot of work that goes into making each pair of earring, more than you’d think. There is about 9 to 11 stages to making each pair of earrings depending on whether they are studs or dangles.

I offer all of my studs on either hooks or hoops along with offering clip on backs and sterling silver for sensitive ears which is also very popular. The standard backs are made from hypoallergenic surgical steel which is nickel free. I have now been trading for 14 months with Sapphire Frills which has gone super fast but has been the best journey of my life! I started SF worked 3 days a week in employment but made the jump a month ago to go full time which has been the best decision yet!

I love being part of MMFH because it has connected me to so many kind people. It has brought me closer to the makers community and it’s so lovely to be able to support each other. It was also the first market that I took place in since lockdown, I have been with you from the start, one of the originals and it is very much my favourite one. I love the way you run the market Andy and this is the reason why I made the decision to tie my live Instagram markets in with yours. There’s no other market day I would choose to do a live.

Watch our #MiddayMakers chat with Sapphire on our IGTV channel

Visit her shop on Etsy SapphireFrills

Instagram @sapphirefrills