Member Story - Nicole Hill

Nicole of Nicole Hill Handcrafted Artisan Jewellry shares her story with us. I can think of worse places to craft for food than the South of France! Nicole handcrafts some amazing and unique jewelry pieces including pieces with European chainmail and pieces in copper. Thanks for sharing your story Nicole!


Come Rain or Shine
By Nicole Hill

I started making jewellery about 18 months ago, while working full-time at an admin job in London, living in Brighton (about an hour and a half's commute, each way) and studying for an MA in International Relations. I like to keep busy.

Slowly though, the combination was driving me mad - and my partner was getting similarly fed up of the long commute, long hours we were both doing, and the tiny amount of time we saw each other for while we were both awake. He applied for a job (unbeknownst to me) down in the South of France, got called for interview, then got offered the job. With a start date of 6 weeks later. My job were very understanding, and in fact, I'm actually only temporarily unemployed - they've let me go under a career break scheme, where they undertake to take me back at some point. Despite the short notice, and me leaving them in the lurch - which I do feel bad about, even if the job itself was slowly killing me - they had no problems releasing me, and so in the middle of summer, we moved down here with suitcases on a airplane (I'm still haunted by how many of my books we had to throw away, and the amount of excess luggage we had to pay nonetheless...)

I spent the first month here finishing my MA dissertation. (Well, ok, starting it, too. I'm good at procrastination. I got the whole thing done in about 2 weeks, the last 2 weeks before the deadline...) And then I halfheartedly looked for "real" jobs, while making the most of the sunshine. Sadly, the south of France is not immune to the economic crisis, even if our little village sometimes feels like it's in another world, and there are almost no jobs. None of those few that do exist are anything I'm remotely qualified for. So, I've registered as self-employed and am trying my hardest to make this work - the alternative is moving back to the UK and the rain and gloom. Which I'm so not looking forward to having to do. This year will be my year, I'm hoping!


We can afford to eat, just about, but we'd be able to afford it a lot easier if my jewellery takes off - not to mention being able to afford to be ill and the like. Will craft for drugs sounds wrong though ;-)

Visit Nicole's shop for some truly one of a kind jewelry.