Interview With Sweet Cavanagh

Hello!  How are you?  Today I wanted to introduce you to a very special guest on the blog today, Rosalind, the programme coordinator at Sweet Cavanagh.  Sweet Cavanagh is a jewelry brand that is owned by Free Me, a London based charity organization that provides free care and support to women recovering from eating disorders and addictions.  When I was searching for a brand to promote over the holidays a couple years ago that gave support to women with eating disorders, I found Sweet Cavanagh.  As many of you know, this cause is really near and dear to me.  One of the reasons I started this blog was to be able to one day help those who are suffering from eating disorders with a charitable contribution in some way.  To show my support today, I wanted to share this interview with you and encourage you to make purchases from this brand.  I just purchased my first bracelet with a rose and aventurine bead and I love it!  I am super excited about this pretty little bracelet with a pink rose on it and wear it often as a reminder of the healing that is taking place through Free Me and Sweet Cavanagh.

So, here we go…

Hello!  Thank you for sharing your time with us today. 

Can you tell me your story of how and why the Free Me charity organization started?

Florence started Free Me after spending time in a residential treatment centre in South Africa for an addiction and eating disorder. After she returned she wanted a way to be able to spend time with her friends who were also in recovery where they could meet up and talk about the trials and tribulations of committing every day to your recovery, but without it being just about recovery. Whilst in South Africa, she had been introduced to beading, so when one of her friends was in need they met up, brought some beads and talked it all through.

Florence wanted Free Me to expand so that women across London could access a free, creative support network at a time when increasing funding cuts meant access to NHS healthcare was becoming harder and harder to get, and private therapy costs were too much for the majority of people. Sadly, the situation only seems to be getting worse. But we are so grateful to be able to provide the programme at Free Me as a small way to fill this gap in treatment options.

I personally came on board as programme coordinator a little over a year ago, having been through the programme myself three years ago. I experienced first hand the value of such an organization and was unbelievably impressed with what Florence had set up. To be able to use my experiences to help others now is amazing.

How did Sweet Cavanagh start and how does it help to empower women?

Well, with all this beautiful jewelry being made in the groups, and the struggle to get funding to turn it into what it is now, it only made sense to start selling the jewelry. Each woman who attends the Free Me programe has her own page on the Sweet Cavanagh website where we upload each piece of jewelry she has made and named. To be able to create something beautiful during a time of struggle is incredibly rewarding and to see it photographed and on a website is so empowering. Every time a piece sells you know you have made something that someone else values and cherishes, when you’re in the early stages of recovery these are feelings that don’t always come easy.

What kinds of support does Free Me provide?

Free Me offers peer support and jewelry making workshops to women in recovery. In addition to this, there is a group therapy session and access to nutritional support, and best of all, it’s completely free.

When I was browsing through the selections of jewelry pieces, I noticed names and stories.  Can you tell me a little bit more about that?

Sure, each woman has her own page and writes a short bio, giving a little bit of background on who they are and their journey so far. She will also name every piece of jewelry she makes in a unique way. Sometimes this could be a first name as the piece reminded them of someone in particular, sometimes it just evokes a feeling (like patience) or reminds the maker of a place or thing. Sometimes it’s just a funny play on words (a great example of this was Ellie’s piece called Ainsley Halibut – a necklace with a fish charm on). Being able to be a bit silly in the workshop is really important to us, we want to support one another through hardship, but we also want to have fun, drink tea and come up with silly puns. At the end of the day, if everyone feels a little bit better than they did when they walked through the door in the morning, we know we’ve done our job well.

I noticed that no jewelry pieces were replicated, what type of materials are used to create this jewelry and what is the quality like?

We use a huge variety of materials including semi-precious stones such as aventurine, amethyst, carnelian and rose quartz. Recently, we moved to a new studio where we have been able to expand our skillset, we are learning to work with metals and are hoping to produce some silver rings to sell soon (once we’ve really got the knack of it, so watch this space!) We also receive donations from other jewelers and crafters who give us beads and other objects to work with, we love this as anything to stop bits going to a landfill is a win. It’s great to give something a second life as well!

The women are all trained in how to make the jewelry to a standard that it won’t break and we try to use materials that won’t tarnish or wear.

Where can we purchase jewelry from Sweet Cavanagh?

Our main selling point is on our website www.sweetcavanagh.com We also sell a few select items on our Not on the High Street page  Keep an eye on our social media for updates of any other places we will be stocking.

If you’re U.K based we do pop up sales in London often and you can find us at empowering events — recent ones include the Women of the World festival and the Anti Diet Riot Club Fair

Where can we connect with Sweet Cavanagh and Free Me?

Find us on Instagram at sweetcavanagh Twitter @CavanaghSweet and Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/sweetcavanagh/

You can email directly to Rosalind on info@sweetcavanagh.com to find out more about both the programme itself or the jewelry we are selling

Thanks so much for chatting to us, we’re so happy to feature on your blog and to spread our message of hope and empowerment to all those in recovery or wondering if it’s possible for them.

Thank you for taking the time to write this interview.  Hopefully, we can raise more support for Free Me.