How Beretun Designs by Linda Johnson started and evolved
I've spent most of my life creating beautiful things for clients, friends and family. I’ve always been inspired by nature and history which is reflected in my designs and as I get older things have become more and more colourful…I think because I just love colour as much as I love flowers.
In 1990 and days before the Internet I opened my first shop in Onley, Northants selling my jewellery, at this time I also started to make my tiaras. Materials weren’t as readily available as they are these days and I had to trawl the yellow pages telephone directories to find wire manufacturers and little factories who could cut my metal flower and leaf shapes so I could bring the ideas to life, which had been rattling around my head for what felt like years. I found some good people and my unique designs became reality. I showed them at a local wedding show and suddenly I was inundated with orders and I took on my first assistant.
We became well know and the business grew and within 2 years I was able to move to a much bigger shop in Milton Keynes where I also hand made my own range of historical inspired fabric shoes with amazing embellished buckles to match my jewellery and tiaras. I also created Victorian corseted wedding dresses with huge skirts lots of surface decoration and in a wonderful array of coloured silks.
I worked from my Milton Keynes wedding studio for over 20 years. During this time I embraced the internet, although most customers when told I had an on line shop answered with…..they didn’t have a computer…how times have changed in a few short years.
In 2011 I had the opportunity to move my business to Brighton and open my lovely boutique in the buzzing creative hub that is the North Laine area, and luckily my hand made creations along with my new range of hand painted shoes and dresses were incredibly popular, the shop became a huge success and I needed a whole team of people to help me, we were like a big creative family and even now we are still in touch.
I loved this time as I was able to make amazing one off pieces, put them in the window and it didn’t matter how ‘out there’ they were, they’d be bought almost immediately.
I opened my Etsy shop in 2015 and this draw visitors from far and wide who wanted to see my work in person.
But the hard 7 day week, no holidays, running a shop and an internet business while living on the premises started to wear me out and in August 2021 I decided to slow down, I closed the Brighton shop and stepped back from the busy high Street business.
I didn’t stop though, now I’m back working on my own and I make my designs from my peaceful little studio on the Beach at Pevensey Bay or while we are exploring Europe in our campervan (my travelling workshop my husband calls it 😄) and I make most of my sales from my Etsy shop and the few in-person events I do, details of which can be found on my Facebook page.
I’ve been a creative, designer, maker most of my life and I’m still learning and making new things, I probably always will, it’s in my DNA.
Keep an eye on my shop to see my latest creations and maybe have something gorgeous hand made by me, just for you.❤️
Thanks for reading my story
Linda x
