Swank: jewellery with attitude

When a girl loves plastic and is highly creative, there is only one thing she should do – and that’s make jewellery.

Swank is the label created by Becky Wignell, a label that lets her push her creativity to the maximum. She found her room was too small to make the sculptures she designed at university, so she started to create smaller wearable sculptures. “People seemed to like my designs and thankfully a local shop and an independent website took on my wares.” Becky started off making Lego jewellery and created pieces using ’80s toys. She made jewels from pieces she found at car boot sales and now she creates her own giant plastic creations. “I’ll make a necklace from anything I think is a nice shape.”

She has found a passion for laser-cutting and this has inspired a collection of statement necklaces. Her toucan and rock lobster necklaces are amazing and will be a definite talking point when you wear them. You can make a statement with her cartoon-like necklaces. Whether it’s a kapow, bang, blam or wham, you will love these pieces.

The ethos of the label is all the jewellery is hand-made here in the UK, and all the components are sourced from the UK too. The laser-cutting is done by a small company in England and packaging is bought from and printed by a small company who use all-recycled materials. Becky has even travelled to Ghana to work on a women’s project designing recycled jewellery to fund their micro-finance, sexual health and youth projects. You can’t deny that this girl is doing great things.

What inspires a girl who loves plastic so much? Becky enlightened us: “I am inspired by instantly recognisable images and base a lot of my work on pop culture images and take inspiration from classic design, such as the iconic aeroplane necklaces. I like my designs to contain powerful imagery within popular culture that everyone can identify with. I really enjoy retro design and vintage fashions, I don’t take life too seriously and I am to show this through my designs.”  The influences are clearly evident but if you don’t like jewellery that is going to make you stand out, this clearly isn’t for you.

If you love comic books and all things old school, then you will love Swank. Head to the website to view designs that really pack a punch here.

Jenny Rodgers