Celebrating Our Women Makers
Here at Uneeka, we pride ourselves on sourcing products from ethically conscious makers who consider sustainability and the welfare of their employees through every part of their manufacturing process. When we select a new supplier, we look at the resources used to create their products, favouring recycled or biodegradable materials and sustainable manufacturing processes. We also look for makers whose businesses can do good for their local community such as offering employment in rural areas, providing a fair wage and creating ongoing opportunities for the employees and their families.
To celebrate International Women's Day this year, we would like to share 5 of our favourite Women makers who set out to create sustainable, ethical products without ever compromising on beauty and design. Read on to find out more about the wonderful women that keep our shop shelves looking bold and bountiful every day!
Established by designer and print maker Ellie Hodesdon in 2015, this paper garland supplier is brand new to us this year. With the aim to create beautiful and sustainable stationary and paper homewares, Ellie began hand crafting paper goods from a studio in the East End of Glasgow. Her designs use vivid colours and quirky motifs inspired by the beauty of the natural world.
Ellie favours screen printing to create her products as the complex layering process and traditional techniques involved result in a gorgeously unique aesthetic. As the business grew, Ellie made the decision to relocate production to India, known for it's bustling textile and printmaking industry while continuing to create designs, prototypes and colour ways from the East End of Glasgow.
Now manufactured by a family in Jaipur, all of Ellie's paper products are hand crafted from 100% recycled cotton waste from India's textile industry and nontoxic water-based inks. With a vision to be as sustainable as possible, the Jaipur factory is largely solar powered and electric vans are used to transport materials around the unit. Furthermore, the factory only use 'old' water in their printing production which is circulated and recycled so that no fresh water is ever needed.
Ellie also wanted her business to focus heavily on safe and fair working conditions. As a result, every manufacturer in the production chain is fair trade and registered with SEDEX - an international organisation ensuring ethical and responsible supply chains. In addition to this, the largely woman-based production team are paid the same wage as their male co-workers, which is not common practice in India.
We are so excited to welcome Ellie's screen printed paper garlands into our stores! Our favourite so far is the Screen Printed Insect Garland as it's gold accents catch the light beautifully. Her ambition to create a fair, ethical and sustainable business is something to be admired and we are so proud to stock her products at Uneeka.
Take a look at these stunning paper garlands on our website.
Nicola Hutchinson founded her own greetings card company in 2017 while on maternity leave. Working from her studio in North Yorkshire, Nicola was inspired by the hand painted cards that she and her husband would make for each other. Fuelled by her mission to bring colour, vibrancy and imagination into the everyday world, Nicola drew inspiration from the world around her combined with her own fantastical imaginings, giving her characters joyous personalities that are bound to put a smile on your face!
We have had the pleasure of selling Nicola's hand painted cards for a number of years and we always look forward to seeing her latest creations. Some of the newest additions to our shop shelves include this adorable Squirrel With Cake Birthday Card and the Panda With Donut Birthday Card, both of which are quickly becoming customer favourites.
“Making art for me is about happiness, I choose colours and subjects that make me smile, dreaming up characters I would love to meet whilst roaming our beautiful world” - Nicola
All of Nicola's stunning hand painted creations are available on our website.
After working in Asia as a holiday rep, Adele Collinson discovered the use of felt as a versatile and sustainable material and became inspired to set up a business that could bring beautiful hand made creations to the UK, through the power of felt. In 2009 Adele found a small cottage industry in Nepal that created wool products and utilised her design degree to establish a business that could produce high quality, sustainable products while providing a safe and ethical place of work for the skilled artisans who were to bring her designs to life.
Adele's felt creatures are hand needle felted or wet felted using pure sheep's wool from New Zealand - a natural by-product that is completely cruelty free and biodegradable. The vibrant dyes are all 'azo' free and mostly natural, using recycled water that is purified on site using steamers fuelled by wasted cut-off wood from the local community. As a result, the making of these little felt creations are actively reducing landfill impact while producing very minimal pollution.
Over 15 years later, Adele still visits her factory three times a year to create new products with her team of over 250 talented women and together they create over 150 new designs each year. All of these felt creations are hand made, biodegradable and ethically produced by talented workers who are cared for by the company.
We have been stocking Adele's adorable felt creatures for the best part of 10 years, with the Felt Big Bumble Bee a firm favourite from the very start! Recently we have welcomed some brand new designs into our stores, such as Felt Gabby the Rainy Day Goose and Felt Gus The Pot Belly Piglet. So far they have fit right in!
You can find all of the felt creatures made by Adele and her team on our website!
One of our longest standing suppliers is local jewellery maker Victoria, who fills the premium jewellery sections in our stores with elegant, hand made sterling silver products that are a firm favourite with all the team at Uneeka!
In 2012, Victoria started up her jewellery business from her own kitchen table in Cornwall. Her aim was to create simple and affordable jewellery for all by turning her sketched designs into jewellery that could be treasured. Now with a small team based in Penzance, each piece is carefully curated, hand textured and soldered, often including semi-precious beads and stones, Czech glass beads and textured brass shapes.
For a number of years, our customers have adored these delightful Silver Teardrop Necklaces and the earrings to match. We love that we can stock the beautiful hand made creations of a local jewellery maker like Victoria!
View these beautiful pieces of jewellery on our website.
Another of our long term suppliers is Dipika Shah, who began producing hand made gift packaging and homewares from her dining room table in 1993. With a strong focus on sustainability and ethical sourcing, Dipika's company employ highly skilled artisans to hand craft high quality papers out of left over cotton, which is sourced from the India's large textile industry, therefore reducing the impact on landfill. Not only are these papers beautifully hand made into wrapping paper, gift bags and jewellery boxes but everything crafted by Dipika and her team is fully biodegradable when it comes to the end of its life.
We adore Dipika's creations at Uneeka because they embody stunning designs with exquisite patterns and colours, while Dipika meticulously avoids any material or resource waste in her production process.
You can find a wide range of Dipika's recycled cotton gift packaging on our website.
Check out our Instagram for more stories on our Women makers and pop into our Life Stores in Truro and Falmouth to browse our products in person!
