In many ways, Flower & Fable began long before we ever gave it a name. It is a collection of all the things we’ve found ourselves returning to over the years ~ flowers, folklore, old objects and the stories people carry with them.
I grew up around people who understood that objects carry meaning. My nan, on my father’s side, was from a travelling family ~ a woman who loved jewellery the way travelling people do, with a devotion that was practical and deep. She knew stories rooted in folklore and fact in equal measure, passed down through generations of people who lived close to the land.
My maternal grandfather, who looked uncannily like Django Reinhardt, was a romantic soul who drove steam trains out of St Pancras and played violin. He kept a primrose pressed in his diary from his first date with my grandmother. We found it when he died.
I’ve always felt slightly out of step with modern life, and most myself in the company of my grandparents. Their stories, the way they lived, and their sense of beauty and sentimentality continue to shape everything we make.
Looking back, I think I have been trying to make sense of those worlds ever since ~ worlds where feeling is carried in objects rather than spoken, where flowers say what people cannot quite bring themselves to, and where things are kept simply because they mean something.
For a long time I ran a hair salon. When I met Ben, I sold it, bought a campervan and we spent a few years travelling slowly around Europe with no particular destination or hurry. It was the first time I had given myself permission to ask what I actually wanted my life to look like.
The answer was surprisingly simple.
I wanted to make things.
I wanted to build a life that had enough room in it to notice things.
Living with a chronic illness has shaped that life too. It has taught me the value of pacing myself and that not everything needs to happen quickly.
Flower & Fable grew out of all of that ~ stories, sentimental objects, and the simple belief that beautiful things made carefully are worth making.
It began here in Beddgelert, drawn to Eryri because it felt rich in all the things we loved most ~ wild flowers, folklore and a landscape where the old magic still feels close.
A few years later, Flower & Fable became a physical place too, in the form of a little shop in Ludlow. People would come to touch, try on and discover things, often staying far longer than they intended. More than anything, it reminded us that people are searching for connection ~ to stories, to places and to objects that carry memory.
Eventually, we found ourselves back in Beddgelert, where Flower & Fable continues to grow today.
Our jewellery begins with a real flower, cast in silver using the lost wax method and chosen for its meaning, history and folklore.
Ben takes care of the printing, packaging and logistics, all produced in-house, by hand and without plastic. Every order leaves us wrapped as a gift, because we think that is exactly what it should feel like, whether you are choosing it for yourself or passing it on to someone else.
We make jewellery, scent and objects for the proudly sentimental ~ inspired by floriography, folklore and the stories we inherit and create for ourselves.
Karen & Ben