Our Story

Hi, I'm Shell, the maker behind Glitter Nonsense and a lover of all things colourful.

I guess you're here wondering how Glitter Nonsense got started? Read on to find out more about my passion, influences and how my colourful world of nonsense all began...

As with so many enterprises, Glitter Nonsese started during the pandemic. Bored and worried out of my mind, I was looking for ideas of new crafts to try, keen to keep my mind occupied and boost those feel-good hormones.

Daily walks and spending time outdoors helped, but I've never been one for sitting around doing nothing, and crafts have always provided the perfect outlet to express my creativity whilst feeling like I'm being productive at the same time.

As a serial crafter though, if you name it, I've probably tried it. From a 6 month phase during which I made upwards of 200 giant poppoms for 2 different weddings, to lino cutting, crochet, knitting, clay...the list is truly endless.

Spicy Serial Crafter

As with most spicy serial crafters though, it's rare for something to stick. That however changed when a resin kit was gifted to me at Christmas 2022. I was immediately hooked.

Having previously spent hours scouring Etsy for the kind of earrings I like to wear but rarely finding anything that was exactly right, I realised I could now make pretty much any earrings I wanted, including the unconventional earrings I'd spent hours sourcing for my wedding the previous year!

Why Glitter Nonsense?

I've never believed in taking myself too seriously and as a colour and glitter loving maximalist, there's more than a little edge of kitsch to everything I make. Taste is subjective and whilst big bold earrings aren't for everyone, I've never done anything in my life for anyone but me!

I make the kind of earrings that bring me joy to wear. Subtle, understated and samey just isn't my jam. Too many of us are desperately trying to fit in when we'd find more meaning and happiness from confidently standing out, indulging our inner toddler and reveling in our weirdness!

The things I make are all about fun and creating a sense of joy, so when the name Glitter Nonsense popped into my head, it felt absolutely perfect!

You'll see specific colours and themes feature a lot in my work. Cerise and bubble gum pink, vibrant teal and purple to lilac tones are my core colours that I work with time and time again.

Of course that doesn't mean I don't work with other colours too, but pink, teal and purple are definitely personal favourites.

My Values

I started off strictly using only biodegradable glitter and used that as a USP. However, there's no disguising the fact that even the best quality resin isn't the most ecofriendly product on earth - it's a type of plastic after all - so pairing it with biodegradable glitter felt like a somewhat hollow gesture.

I carefully weighed up the pros and cons of crafting with the material and steadily found ways to minimise waste to ensure almost nothing was thrown away.

I price my earrings realistically. They are designed to be statement pieces that you'll want to wear more than once and I dearly hope that they aren't regarded as single-wear throwaway pieces that almost immediately end up in landfil like so many cheap accessories from fast fashion brands.

I want my earrings to be a somewhat considered purchase. A special, yet affordable gift or a little treat for yourself rather than something purchased impulsively that ultimately goes unworn and gets discarded.

Minimising Waste

Aside from the measuring/weighing process, working with resin isn't an exact science; not for me anyway! I've become pretty adept at guessing how much I'll need for any given project, but there's often a little excess left over.

I've found creative ways to ensure none of this is wasted, creating little colourful resin pieces, random shapes and chips that I can reuse and embedd into other pieces that I make.

If there's a little more resin left over after a pour, I use that to make buttons! The buttons sell really well over on Etsy and are perfect for other crafters to use, sold in random packs of 10, 20, or 30 buttons.

Genuine Handmade

In a world where consumers are increasingly price sensitive and out of touch with the realities of production, from the time taken to dream up, create and market something, to the actual cost of materials, packaging and delivery, handmade is a challenging niche to operate in.

We're constantly being told that consumers don't care if something is handmade or not and all they want is cheap.

But I disagree, and I know for a fact that others do too.

I make ethical purchasing decisions in my own life whenever I can. Of course I also shop with some of the big brands out of necessity, but when it comes to clothing, accessories, homewares, and so on, handmade and ethical production matters to me and I'm perfectly happy to consume less in order to make better purchasing decisions.

On my social media channels I talk about the importance of supporting small businesses and I practice what I preach. Take a look at my blog bigging up some of the amazing small businesses I love shopping with.

When online market places are passing off increasingly huge numbers of drop shippers and businesses that sell mass produced products as handmade, it can be difficult for consumers to know whether they really are buying from a genuine small handmade business or not.

I share my making processes as often as possible over on TikTok and Instagram, where I show people behind the scenes the process from mixing resin and glitters to pouring, sanding, finishing and finally carding up my finished earrings from my tiny home studio in Cheshire, UK.

I do this, not only to provide me with content for the ever hungry social media algorithms, but to demonstrate that everything I sell is genuinely handmade by me.

I hope that gives you a little insight into Glitter Nonsense and how my businesses came about. If you have any other questions, please check out the FAQs page or get in touch.