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OUR STORY
Thirty years.
One
belief.
Two women. A shared conviction that peace matters.
And a business built - and rebuilt - entirely around that idea.
Gillian & Carol. Partners since 2000.
Two women. Thirty years. One idea that kept finding its way back.
In 1994, Carol opened a small Mind, Body, Spirit shop in Northampton. She tucked a handwritten card into every gemstone bracelet she sold — something about the stone, what it represented, why it mattered. Customers noticed. Gillian walked in. They've worked together ever since.
By 2003 they were wholesaling gemstone bracelets worldwide.
By 2010: 35 countries, 35 staff, £2.5 million in annual sales.
Then three of their largest customers collapsed, leaving debts that came close to half a million pounds. They could have borrowed and fought on. They chose not to. They'd had enough.
They had always treated their staff like family. When the time came, they proved it. Before they closed, every member of staff was supported into new employment, with paid leave to make the transition.
Years passed. Life redirected, as it tends to.
In the years that followed, both Gillian and Carol turned toward something they had always believed but rarely had time to practice — that peace isn'y something you find. It's something you choose. Quietly. Repeatedly. Every day.
And then Buddha Beads. Not a reinvention — a return.
Buddha Beads are worn by people who believe peace matters. Within themselves. In how they treat others. In the world.
The bracelets are made by Patrick & his team, in China — a craftsman we have worked with for over twenty years. We know his family. We trust his hands.
And with every bracelet sold, we feed a child caught in conflict for a week. Direct. No middlemen. No percentages lost.
Because peace isn't just something you wear. It's something you act on.
THE POEPLE BEHIND IT
Meet Carol & Gillian
Carol
Carol arrived in the world with a stillness that most people spend a lifetime searching for. As a child she was drawn to nature. As an adult she has had insights and moments of clarity that are, frankly, not entirely explainable. Living with her, says Gillian, is like living with a spiritual teacher.
She is kind, thoughtful, and quietly very funny. She listens to music the way most people don't — hearing every instrument, every layer. She has always loved the drums.
She writes, she notices, and she brings that quality of stillness to everything she does.
LOVES
Nature. Birds. Pink Floyd. Dire Straits. India — the country and the food.
Gillian
Gillian is funny, enthusiastic, and has approximately a million ideas at any given moment — most of which she will immediately share with whoever is nearest, whethere they are intested or not.
She is honest to a fault, kind, generous, and has been bossy since childhood. Her oldest friend Elizabeth Belshaw can confirm all of the above.
She fosters Guide Dogs and recently adopted Bob, a rejected Guide Dog who has settled in as though he always knew this was where he was supposed to be.
LOVES
The sea. The snow. Einaudi. The Wandering Hearts. Licquorice Flyers. Christmas. Bob.
A NOTE ON BOB
The dog who didn't make the grade.
He's fine about it.
Bob was training to be a Guide Dog. It didn't work out. The official reason is unclear — though if you ask him, he seems entirely unbothered. Gillian adopted him, and he now lives with someone who makes peace bracelets for a living. He fits in perfectly. Some things just find their right place.