About BEACH HUT BEADS
Founder of Beach Hut Beads, Lesley De Gruchy, was born in Twickenham, but moved to Jersey when she was just a small child. She has lived by the sea most of her life and her gorgeous collections reflect the happy days spent on or near the beach.
Lesley feels privileged to live so close to the sea, being able to look out at the waves from her living room and to walk along the shoreline, collecting the various treasures that have then influenced her work.
Lesley has always been very creative, especially with textiles, and loves making things for the home. Her designs have always been influenced by her surroundings but her love of beach huts developed on a visit to see her brother back in 2000 when he had just moved to South Devon.
There, Lesley saw rows and rows of endless beach huts, found in all shapes, sizes and colours. A hue of colour even on the dullest of days, Lesley loved them and ideas started to form for a new collection of handmade home accessories, although it was some years until her ideas came to fruition.
Lesley’s first beach hut themed creation was a lavender bag, which she made in 2007 and began selling at a local farmers and craft fair. This initial design proved to be very popular and won Lesley the 2010 Jersey Showcase Award for Soft Furnishings.
Driven and encouraged by the popularity of her work, Lesley has created a wide range of handmade textile home accessories and has since won another accolade, this time the 2011 Jersey Textile Showcase for ‘Excellence in design’.