The origins of Pepper Tree Jewellery go back to the mid 80's when Richard Allen began selling fashion jewellery at local markets and boot sales.  This jewellery was colourful, fun and cheap, which made it easy to sell!  And because it was cheap to buy, it made sense to customise this jewellery to give it a new look.

As fashions changed, Richard became more interested in silver as silver was his Mother's favourite jewellery.  But with no skills nor experience in making silver jewellery, Richard was buying silver in to sell on.  However, the fascination with silver and the need to create his own designs, it was time to start learning how to make silver jewellery.  And remember, this was the 1980's!  There was no internet and silversmith courses were extremely expensive (as they still are now).

Facing the reality of not being able to afford this learning, Richard persued a career in recruitment but with jewellery running as a side line.  The advantage of working with jewellery part time, there was no pressure to earn from it and this meant there were opportunities to learn many more aspects of jewellery.  From, repairing and restoring, recycling and upcycling, gold plating and stone setting, Richard was constantly developing his jewellery making skills.

Fast forward to the 2000's and Richard is now creating more designs although, at this stage, it is just for fun (some of these earlier pieces have now been put on sale).  And, during this period, Richard discovered Silver Clay which brought a whole new dimension to his jewellery making.

Richard quit his full time job and created Pepper Tree Jewellery in early 2020.  At that time he did all his work in his shed at the bottom of his garden.  Now Pepper Tree Jewellery has a studio on the East Yorkshire Coast at Withernsea where Richard runs silver clay workshops.

And, as Richard's designs are now to be found on a variety of other products, Pepper Tree has opened a retail outlet in Trinity Market in Hull City Centre.

Thank you for coming and having a look around, you're always welcome.