Hello! My name is Kelly, and I am the business owner and creator behind Willow & Twigg.

I am a self-employed artisan jewellery designer-maker, and I currently live on the south coast of Hampshire in the UK with my husband and our three young daughters.

I’m also a Royal Navy veteran, having joined as an officer at the tender age of 18, and served almost fifteen years before leaving the military to have children and raise a family.

I have always been a creative person and enjoy any pastime that allows me to be imaginative and indulge my love for art and design.

My love for creating jewellery began almost twenty years ago whilst I was still serving in the Navy. Back then I enjoyed making beaded jewellery as a hobby, which was the perfect creative antidote to the pressures of my job in Air Traffic Control.

In 2013 my husband (who still serves) was offered an overseas posting to fly the FA18 Fighter Jet for the US Navy, so I left the military to accompany him. We spent the next three years very happily living in Virginia Beach, USA, and our two youngest daughters were born there.

On our return to the UK our next home was to be in Gosport, near to the Navy HQ of Portsmouth, and very close to the beach at Stokes Bay.

As a former sailor the sea has always been in my blood, but it was shortly after moving here that I developed a real love for beachcombing. I began to regularly enjoy long walks along the seafront, combing for treasure and picking up shells and random bits of driftwood that I still hope to one day to find a use for!

It was also at this point that I developed a love for collecting sea glass – and this would later become my pathway into metalsmithing.

As the girls neared school age, the desire to regain a little more self-identity became stronger, and I found myself yearning for an occupation of my own again.

With a young family still to manage, self-employment seemed the best option as it would allow me to work from home and still be available for my daughters whenever they needed me.

I also longed to do something creative after spending most of my adult life in the military, so I decided to return to making jewellery. This time though, I wanted to add metalsmithing to my skillset so that I could use sea glass in my designs.

I set about teaching myself to work with silver, and learned how to create an online business to sell my designs and ensure my new venture was going to be sustainable.

I launched Willow & Twigg in the summer of 2019 and I haven’t looked back! Running a small business is far from easy and takes a lot of hard work and discipline. It can also be challenging to juggle everything, especially with a young family – who will always come first.

But I wouldn’t want to do anything else now, and the pride I feel when my girls tell people what I do is very real!

I work mainly in silver at the moment, and as well as using sea glass I also love incorporating semi-precious gemstones in my designs.

In 2025 I consolidated my existing skills (and learned many new ones!) by completing the Diploma In Silver Jewellery with Jewellers Academy, and I'm really excited to be starting their new Diploma In Wax Jewellery this September.

I am also now a mentor for their Jewellery Business Academy programme, and the tutor of their online sea glass jewellery making course.

I also teach sea glass jewellery as an in-person class at Jewellers Academy Brighton, and find the experience incredible rewarding. You can find out more about these classes at the link HERE.

In addition to making jewellery and beachcombing I also have a deep passion for gardening and being outdoors. I grew up in the countryside and draw a great deal of inspiration from trees, plants and flowers, which is also reflected in my work.

I really love baking and sewing too, and I enjoy photography. I’m also learning to sail (or at least trying to) and I am currently writing a book on Sea Glass Jewellery which is due to be published by Bloomsbury in the spring of 2027. You can find out more about the book HERE.

I thoroughly enjoy designing and creating jewellery, and it is my greatest wish that anyone who chooses to invest in any of my pieces will love wearing them as much as I enjoyed making them!

Thank you for taking the time to visit my website. If you are interested in learning more about me and my processes then do check out my Blog posts.

And if you wish to see what goes on behind the scenes and discover new creations whilst they are still on the bench, then please take a look at my social media pages using the links in the menu.

If you would like to view some of the pieces I currently have available for sale then you can do so via the 'Online Store'.

And finally, if you have any questions, comments or feedback please do get in touch - I would love to hear from you!