Claire Bentley Creative
Jewellery and beads have been a passion for me since I was a child. From an old tin of jewellery, beads and buttons given to me by my grandmother, I continued to feed my hobby with trips to bead stores, searching junk shops for old jewellery and making my own jewellery to sell at craft fairs.
Luckily for me, my childhood hobby turned into my profession, and I have been in the jewellery industry for over 30 years since graduating from the prestigious Central St Martins college of Art in London, with a BA Hons in Jewellery Design. Learning my trade in commercial retail environments, I have designed for most of the UK high street fine jewellery retailers and, also with my love of fashion and colour, have worked alongside the buying and design teams of most of the UK’s clothing stores too.
In recent years, I have been working as a freelance designer in Jewellery and graphic design, plus focusing on branding and social media for Jewellery brands.
Various opportunities opened along the way to enable me to share my design skills and experience by running courses and workshops, sparking a passion of teaching. At the start of 2025, I set up my own website to promote crafting for creativity, community and well-being. The aim is to explore different craft activities through workshops and kits to create at home. I am passionate that everyone should have access to being creative and to develop artistic skill to help with their overall mental health.
I run a variety of workshops mostly including beads of course!! Beaded jewellery making, Polymer clay, paper and thread collage and dream catchers.
As for me, I find inspiration everywhere, from the flowers in my garden, a ceramic tile on an old building through to decoration on a food label or pebbles on the beach. I love colour hence my obsession with beads and I am drawn to anything that has pattern on it - a running joke in my family, as I will often be found taking a quick photo of some random item that has a fab intricate design on it!
My desire to pass on my own skills to others was influenced by my lovely Mum, who sadly passed away in July 2024. She started out as an occupational therapist where crafting was the main form of therapy and then followed her creative passion and taught embroidery for the rest of her working life.