Heather Walsh never intended to become a jewellery maker at all.

It only happened because she has no talent for retirement.

And she blames her sister a little too.

A few summers ago, Heather tried her hand at a style of beaded knitting she had never seen before. This is the part where we blame her sister, as it was on a visit from America that she introduced the whole idea. She quickly started playing around with ways of customising and tweaking the design, until she had a bracelet design that she really loved.

Then there’s a really hazy stretch which none of us can remember properly (I’m sure there were all sorts of objections raised, and doubts expressed) but somehow, coming out the other side Rubyhues had taken on a life of it’s own!

The original knitted beaded bracelet remains at the heart of the Rubyhues collection, and is still one of our most recognised and iconic pieces.

Here’s what you didn’t know about the knitted collection.

1.       They are each knitted by hand on teeny tiny knitting needles. Heather uses very tiny needles, which are actually pretty hard to find. They’re thinner than the ink tube in your Bic biro!

2.       Each bracelet is carefully designed to ensure that the finished result has the beads in the desired pattern.  Any mistakes at the beginning will mean that the whole thing may have to be knitted again – very time consuming! 

3.       The back of the bracelets are beaded too, with seed beads. This means that when you’re wearing a Rubyhues knitted bracelet it feels all smooth and beaded against your wrist. Of course this also adds a whole lot more work.

4.       No two bracelets are ever identical. Or at least the chances of that happening are so remote as to make it mathematically impossible. Heather designs a “recipe” for each style, meaning that every ‘Forget Me Not’ bracelet has the same number of each type of bead, but the order in which those beads are knitted is always different, making each one a unique piece.

5.       There are a few custom pieces out there that have never been advertised or sold in shops or online.  

We’re really very fussy about what we use in Rubyhues jewellery.

When Rubyhues started in August 2013 we bought a whole bunch of beads. It seemed like an astronomical order, although in retrospect it wasn’t so very many, and at the time (for a tiny baby business) it was a scary cost too! With her new bead stock Heather was able to design the first range of knitted bracelets and Rubyhues got it’s start.

But it wasn’t very long before it became clear that some of the beads just didn’t make the cut. Some beads never made it into any design at all, and some made it into designs that were soon after discontinued. Heather started to develop a sharp sense of quality, and Swarovski quickly become a favourite.

Here’s why, when we use crystals and pearls,  we only use Swarovski:


1.   They are the sparkliest!

They just are! Swarovski says a lot about their “X-Cut” technology and “scientific principles” but it comes down to this:

“This ‘science of geometry’ raises crystals’ brightness, fire, and scintillation to an unmatched level of brilliance.”

And we have to agree. Every order that comes in gets oohs and aahs, and generally halts all productivity for at least a half an hour as we all admire how sparkly the new pretties are!


2.   They are a world standard.

There’s a reason that designers the world over use Swarovski crystals.  They are simply the best.

”Austria has become synonymous with quality. With a highly skilled workforce, supported by fair working conditions in accord with the high environmental standards, it has built a reputation for technical expertise, precision engineering, and reliability.”

We love the fact that we can be totally confident about the quality of the crystal we order and the working conditions at Swarovski.

3.   There are just so many colours and styles!

We think of a colour – they have it! You want a kind of smokey quartz, dusky grey colour? No problem! There’s Silver Night. You’re looking for something that goes from red through orange to yellow, all at once, and looks like it’s on fire? Well how about Fire Opal?

With the colours and shapes available from Swarovski, we’re pretty confident we can meet any custom order and match any outfit, and we’ve done it more than once already!

Also, did I mention how sparkly they are? REALLY sparkly!