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Face To Face: Wild Things
A Walk On The
Wild Side With Autumn Fair around the corner, Wild Things, which specialises in UK designed and manufactured bespoke crystals and jewellery, is looking forward to dazzling buyers with a recently launched all singing, all dancing rotating display tree mini booth, featuring two massive 27w LED cluster bulbs and 132 hanging products! There’s also a new jewellery range launching next year, and a re-branding on the horizon for 2019 to celebrate the company’s 35th milestone anniversary. But that’s just the tip of the iceberg, as the company’s founder and managing director, Jules Vahrman, tells PG&H.
Christmas may be a few months away, but Wild Things’ Jules Vahrman has invested in some early Christmas presents for the business that have really got his creative juices flowing! Taking pride of place at the company’s workshop in Exeter are a laser cutter and engraver, and a flatbed printer that can print on virtually any surface. “In addition to the fact that we design and manufacture our products here in the UK, it will give us an extra USP,” he enthuses, “because it will enable us to take a look at offering other formats.” Along with an idea for a flamingo in the company’s Crystal Fantasies collection, Jules is also creatively buzzing about designing a bee (inspired by a recent visit to the Quince Honey Farm in South Molton, and also in memory of a close friend who was a beekeeper), as well as a barn owl, a fox and a sheep. “They will be static ornaments, and I see them as very collectable, so I’m currently working on an ornament display that I would be proud to have in my own home.”
Above: The company’s mini booth. Left: Jules Vahrman, founder of Wild Things. Right and below: A hanging flamingo and seahorse.
Although Jules has never had any formal design training, (he graduated in psychology), he admits to always having an arty streak, even as a young schoolboy. “I’ve designed from the off, starting out commercially with round, rainbow making holographic badges, which evolved into etchings, so naturally I’m very excited about all the things we can do with our new machines which can do both production runs and prototypes. I’m an ideas man, viewing business from the perspective of an intellectual puzzle, a game that has its own internal logic!” Currently, the company - which recently invested in a back office software system - manufactures quality, rainbow making window ornaments, such as sun-catchers, including some bespoke ones, as well as jewellery, most of which incorporates Swarovski crystal. Additionally, there will be a brand new jewellery line launching
early next year, with Jules confirming that he has a million ideas which involve working with Swarovski, acrylics and birch ply. “While we’re not trailblazers in trends, we are, of course, aware of trends, with the introduction of a flamingo this year being an example,” he points out. Interestingly, Jules’ own story goes back some 44 years, to the heady days of San Francisco’s Haight-Ashbury in the mid ’70s, when he was married to his first wife, an American artist, and living in Berkeley. “We made rainbow making holographic badges and sold them at a local craft market on Telegraph Avenue,” he highlights. “When a wholesaler told us we were selling them too cheaply, we doubled our prices and the business took off, with the likes of John Lennon photographed wearing one of our star badges. It was at a time when you could turn this way and that and see the huge names of the day, such as Jefferson Airplane and Country Joe, walking down the street.” (Jules too, has a love of music, playing both flute and piano). When his marriage broke down, he came back to the UK, “with just my guitar Progressive Gifts & Home Worldwide
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