PRECIOUS baby scans and memories of much-loved family and friends are being captured in timeless pieces of jewellery.

Whitehaven designer Victoria Hughes takes people’s special photos and transforms them into personalised gifts.

“My philosophy is that we all have that special someone we want to keep close to our heart,” she says.

“We all have that perfect moment captured on film, a moment frozen in time that we love to look at which brings back so many memories. So why not wear it for the world to see.”

Necklaces, bracelets, dog tags, key rings and compact mirrors are among the items the 32-year-old can create, all from her front room of her home on Aikbank Road.

Her business – Dolly and Rose – is gathering pace as she gains clients both locally and internationally. She has just broken into the American market by selling a number of gifts through the Etsy website. And for the mum-of-four, who formerly worked at Sellafield, making homemade jewellery has snowballed from a hobby to a business.

Victoria says she took a career break to have her first baby, soon after came the other three and she didn’t return. Her journey of making jewellery progressed during that time.

She says: “It all started off as a hobby through my obsession with fashion designer Cath Kidston. I have many of her pieces and many dresses but I didn’t have any jewellery to match. I began making pendants with the Cath Kidston print inside them to co-ordinate with my clothes.”

This progressed to making pendants with names in for the children in her family.

And Victoria says her love of taking photos of her family meant that she was running out of space on her walls for canvases. All of these elements led to her making jewellery which would show off these special memories.

Initially making gifts for family and friends, her hobby grew into a business idea – and she officially established Dolly and Rose less than a year ago.

Victoria says she is able to fit the business around looking after her four young children: Summer Rose, aged seven, Beau Thomas, aged five, Chase Jamieson, aged three, and Amelia Dolly, aged 20 months. Her business name is based on the middle names of her daughters Summer Rose and Amelia Dolly.

The venture is an opportunity to create treasured items for others.

“The most popular gifts have been baby scans, baby photos and memorial photos,” said Victoria.

“A picture is a moment frozen in time and you have got that moment now. Photos don’t change even if the people in them do,” she said.

Vintage photos are of particular interest to Victoria, she says, as customers often bring in photos of grandparents or late family members.

“You start off not knowing who that person is in the photo and then the customer will share stories about them,” she says.

Photos of loved ones who have passed away are an opportunity for people to treasure their memories, says Victoria. And photo pendants with ribbon for wedding bouquets has become popular recently as brides want to remember lost loved ones on their special day.

For Victoria, the joy of making pendants, which she calls open lockets, is: “you want to show off what you’ve got. What good is a closed locket? People can’t see what’s close to your heart unless you show them. Most people want to show off what is special to them.”

Unexpected requests from customers have included photos of their pets made into keyrings, although Victoria says: “It is unusual but the photos are precious to the owners.”

The task of creating all of these pieces is done in Victoria’s front living room, which she also uses to display her collection.

Victoria says once a customer has given her their photos, she copies the photos and resizes it, changing the colour, to sepia, or black and black, if needed. She then seals the photos in glass which takes a few days to set before finishing in the jewellery surrounds.

Find out more about Victoria’s products on her Facebook page Dolly and Rose. Or look out for the business on Instagram and Etsy.