ISIKO Glass Jewellery

Paula McQuilkin started her working career as an art and design tutor in a fashion department of a college, amongst other roles Paula has been a support worker, a counsellor, a team leader in quality, performance and standards and most recently an education manager in a prison. A day trip to Wales and a visit to an art gallery would be the first steps she would take towards the dream of owning her own business. Hidden down some stairs and tucked away on a back wall she discovered a beautifully framed, all glass picture of a house on a hill, with grass and fields and somewhere in the distance a setting sun, nothing like anything she had ever seen before. “I simply couldn’t afford it I knew at that point that I would learn how to do that myself and that I would have a glass picture hanging on my wall made by my own fair hand one day”. A short course 8 months later in 2014, practicing every weekend in a makeshift workshop, lots of disasters whilst she learnt about the properties and physics of melting glass and perfected her trade and the rest as they say really is history... We asked Paula what does Isiko stand for does it mean anything? “It’s actually a Zulu word meaning culture, it fit so perfectly with my connection with jewellery/ fashion accessories, history and different cultures that when I fell upon this, there was really no going back. And now that I’ve found it I’d like isiko to be the name on people’s lips when they think about buying a gift for someone special. I’d like people to really embrace the importance of our uniqueness and connect with my company’s ethos. isiko pieces are 100% unique, we produce genuine limited editions of 1 by combining glass and precious metals because we understand the importance of individuality and how to give you the luxury item that we think you deserve”. www.isiko.co.uk