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Original handmade pewter beads, buttons and charms, engraved with original Celtic knots

The Story

Annie Wealleans, AKA The Black Dragon Herself, was born in Sussex in 1951. After several extraordinary adventures, she moved to Wales in 1974 to establish a business and raise a family.

She produced leather goods and beaded jewellery, then an odd commission for an unusual handbag introduced her to the delights of Celtic designs…and the rest is history.

She was inspired to design her first Celtic bead in 1990, after a long and fruitless search for something authentic to incorporate into her work. Within 12 months she had won a Best New Product Award for her first range of Celtic beaded jewellery.

It’s a hot, dusty, dirty, complicated and time consuming process but she casts, files, cleans, tumbles and hand finishes all of the beads herself, in her Beadoir on a quiet green Carmarthenshire hillside.
She uses lead free pewter, which she melts and pours into her moulds in an ancient centrifugal casting machine at 350°C.
Last year she made over 60000 items – she burnt herself several times and made quite a few holes in her clothes and fingers too!

She now has over 30 solid lead-free pewter bead, button and charm designs. Each one is unique and has a name…and all are engraved with her very own Celtic knot patterns. Annie sells them on their own and worldwide for other people to use, trade and enjoy.
She also features them in several different ranges of totally timeless jewellery, made in the “clean end” of her workshop. With a couple of lovely part-time ladies, she threads them (with a colourful selection of genuine gemstones, each of which has a story or power) into several timeless collections of necklaces, bracelets, pendants and earrings.

There is Celtic Chakra jewellery to keep you energised and balanced & jewellery with hearts to make you feel loved; there is jewellery with Big Beads because Big is Beautiful & colourful jewellery because Colour is Queen.
Nothing is outrageous and everything is Celtic.
Unusually, she makes things for girls and boys, men and women.
It is all beautifully packaged and very good value.
It is also all made to order and with love, so you may occasionally need to be patient.

And beware of imitations!