Love Your Local: 'My journey from a lockdown hobby to NI's ‘jewellery girl’

Aileen McGuire proud owner of Apiphany Jewellery in Camlough reveals how she went from a lockdown hobby to a sparkling business in four years

Transcript

00:00My name's Aileen and I'm the owner of Epiphany Jewellery.

00:03We are a jewellery business based in Camla and I started my business in lockdown in 2020.

00:09I was just making jewellery myself, watching videos, teaching myself how to make jewellery

00:13and it kind of just went from there.

00:15The name Epiphany, I actually was called Aileen's Attire before and I re-branded to Epiphany.

00:21I always love the word, like when people say I had an epiphany about something

00:25and then A for Aileen, so that's where it came from.

00:27So Epiphany, I do a range of earrings, necklaces, rings, bracelets, anklets,

00:33anything you can think of, I probably do it.

00:36I sell my jewellery online.

00:37I have a website where you can order the stuff and then I post it out to you.

00:41One of my favourite things about my business is getting out and about

00:43in the local community and doing markets.

00:45I enjoy doing my markets around Christmas time.

00:48There's one big one in the summer that it's great to get out and meet people

00:51and they can see the jewellery in real life and I think that really helps.

00:54Most recent part of my business has been my Sip and Sparkle event.

00:58So Sip and Sparkle is essentially a Prosecco and jewellery making event.

01:02It's something I've always wanted to do and I've talked about it for years

01:05so I finally did it and my first one was in April.

01:08So I did it in Camla, I wanted to do it in my local area first

01:11and everybody came, they got a Prosecco on arrival

01:14and then they came in and we made a gorgeous personalised necklace.

01:17So everybody got to stamp their own initial onto the little charms

01:21and then halfway through we had like cheese boards and stuff

01:24and we had such a great night.

01:26It was brilliant and I think there's not much to do in our local area either

01:29so I wanted to create like a night out but that's not just going to the bar.

01:34So it's like something fun you can do and you come home with a necklace that you can wear

01:37and you can tell people that you made it yourself.

01:39Since then I've done three other Sip and Sparkle events.

01:42So I've done four in total.

01:43My business is run solely by me.

01:45I do it all myself, well with the help of my mum, sister and dad as well.

01:49I do all the buying for it, making the jewellery, the marketing of course,

01:55website design, everything to do with my business is me

01:58and you love what you do, it doesn't feel like work and that's how I feel about my business.

02:02Thank you so much for watching and I hope you'll see Epiphany Jewellery coming to you soon.