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 beading 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 remote 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! But there are no holes in her dreams, she is very passionate about what she does and you can see it in her smile.
She now has over 30 solid lead-free pewter bead, button and charm designs. Each one is unique and has its own 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. There are beads with small holes and beads with large holes – so you can thread them into your many different projects. Or your hair. Or your beard. Her beads are very versatile! The newest design is engraved with a pair of welsh dragons..
She features her beads in several different ranges of totally timeless jewellery, made in the “clean” part of her workshop. With one lovely part-time lady called Chris, she threads them into several ageless collections of necklaces, bracelets, pendants and earrings, all of which are realistically priced and beautifully packaged. She incorporates a colourful selection of genuine gemstones in her jewellery, each of which has its own story or power. The story of your chosen gemstone is included in every purchase and there are plenty to choose from.
There is Celtic Chakra jewellery to keep you energised and balanced and jewellery with hearts to make you feel loved; there is jewellery with Big Beads because Big is Beautiful and there is delicate jewellery because Small is Beautiful too. Everything has a Celtic flavour and is made to order, with love. This is individually handmade jewellery, for individuals.
Beware of imitations!
