The 2023 round-up blog!

With 2024 just around the corner, we'd like to share some stories on why 2023 has been such a great year for us. Read on to find out what we've been up to...

Orkney Tourism Awards

In March, we were lucky enough to win the title of 'Tourism Retailer of the Year' at the Orkney Tourism Awards! Thank you to everyone who voted for us and to Orkney's amazing retail industry, full of unique and independent businesses.

Malcolm Appleby's engraving course

Throughout the year, Sheila has been supporting and working closely with up-and-coming designer, Olivia Yorston, helping her turn her drawings and ideas into wearable pieces of jewellery. Sheila and Olivia were both delighted to attend an engraving course in March by world-renowned engraver, Malcolm Appleby.

Sheila had this to say:

"When I noticed Olivia had a very natural ability to engrave, I felt she would benefit from an engraving course with Malcolm. I had always admired his work, so when the opportunity arose to attend one of his masterclasses, we grabbed it! It was an interesting break from the norm for us both and we had a fantastic experience. We are excited to use our new engraving knowledge in future designs and have the ability to add even better details within our jewellery."

Read the full blog about their time on the course.

Meet the Designers

We held two 'Meet the Designer' events in 2023: one in our Edinburgh Gallery in Stockbridge and another in our Glasgow Gallery in Princes Square. Sheila loves spending time getting to know her customers and finding out their favourite collections. Pictured here with Sheila is Erica, one of our most experienced enamellers who has been with us for over 12 years now, demonstrating one of the many steps it takes to bring Sheila's stunning jewellery to life:

Celebrating 30 years of Sheila Fleet Jewellery!

Monday 9 October 2023 marked 30 years since Sheila established her own jewellery business in Orkney. With no sign of her slowing down, Sheila continues to design and launch new collections, including her two most recent designs: Sculpted by Time, based on a design from her college years, and Shells.

As part of our anniversary celebrations, a 20-minute film celebrating Sheila's life was created by local filmmaker, Mark Jenkins. From her childhood spent on a farm in Orkney, to becoming one of Scotland's best-known designers, this film gives a fantastic insight into Sheila's story.

New Collections!

Sheila's Sculpted by Time collection was launched to celebrate the 30-year milestone of Sheila Fleet Jewellery and has been adored by many of you since its release! The collection's bold, contemporary design was inspired by natural rock forms created by the gradual erosion of rock. This process was one of Sheila's passions while studying jewellery and sculpture at Edinburgh College of Art. Each piece within the Sculpted by Time collection is hand-set with a moonstone in our Orkney workshop.

The Shells collection was also launched in 2023, containing beautiful Mussel, Scallop, Oyster, Limpet and Groatie Buckie designs. Sheila was inspired to create these designs by many happy days beachcombing along the shorelines of Orkney.

And Sheila hasn't just been designing jewellery! Discover her new range of Tote Bags, created in collaboration with local designer Kirsteen Stewart. These are available online and in our shops in Cosmos, Summer Meadow, Runic, Skyran and Storm designs.

Drawing & Printing Classes

Sheila has been enjoying some drawing and printing classes that were gifted to her by her employees as part of the company's 30-year anniversary. Through these locally-run courses, she has been reminiscing about times when she would draw people locally in the pubs with her late husband Rick. Taking the time to draw again for pure pleasure has brought Sheila immense joy and is something she hopes to continue. Watch this space!

Enhanced Shop Displays!

For those in Edinburgh, you may have noticed our recent Stockbridge Gallery makeover by Gloam! How stunning does this decoration look? (There's even more inside!)

Charitable Donations

Since 2014, we've been supporting local and national charities through donations from sales of Sheila's Daisies at Dawn, Diamond Daisies and Coloured Daisies collections. Recipients have included Orkney Charitable Trust and Pancreatic Cancer Action Scotland. Throughout 2022 and 2023, we've been supporting MS Society Orkney and are delighted to announce that we have raised over £18,000 for the group!

Donations from Sheila's Bumblebee collection also helped support the important work done by the Bumblebee Conservation Trust, with close to £6,000 raised by the end of March 2023.

We hope to continue helping both local and national charities close to our heart in the future.

Lots of Photoshoots!

It's been a very productive year of photoshoots, where we've had the chance to meet lots of lovely people along the way, and unexpectedly ending up in Mark Wick's fishing boat! Here's a few behind-the-scene images showing some of the jewellery pieces we've been busy photographing.

Looking forward to 2024

We're very excited for 2024 with a lot of projects planned. Keep up-to-date with the latest news by following us on social media and by joining our mailing list.

We'd like to say a massive congratulations to Jodie Brown for winning the Orkney 2025 Island Games medal design competition. Jodie joined the Sheila Fleet team at the beginning of June after undertaking the Jewellery Arts and Technology course at City of Glasgow College. We look forward to working alongside Jodie and she's sure to get involved with the medal-making process, which Sheila Fleet Jewellery is sponsoring.

Thank You!

Thank you so much to all our amazing customers and supporters from over the years. We are very grateful to have such a great community and are looking forward to our future projects together. Wishing everyone a Merry Christmas and all the best for 2024!