News
Crystal Clear at Brollies
Crystal healing - and a bit of help from LEO - has given Bill Derbyshire a new lease on life.
A former builder, joiner, cabinet maker and publican, Bill has suffered from a variety of health problems over the past few years and, as a result, had been unemployed.
His wife, Rose, works at Clay Cross hospital and, during the course of her work, met Jayne Fletcher, who works for the NHS, providing alternative therapy treatments. Rose asked if there was anything Jayne could do to help Bill. There was, and after checking with his GP, Jayne visited him and began the treatments.
During one of the visits, she happened to mention the difficulty she had in obtaining bespoke crafted semi-precious gemstones – crystals – for use in healing work. Bill, always good with his hands, said it shouldn’t be too hard to do.
And that was the start of Brollies (an anagram of Bill and Rose) Crystal Works. With the help of Bizfizz coach Paul Hastings, Bill and Rose have set up the business – Bill having responsibility for the ‘craft’ side of things, while Rose looks after all the paper work.
Bill is a self-taught ‘lapidiarist’ and has now been accepted as a member of the UK Facet Cutters Guild. He has the capability of taking raw semi-previous stones and, by cutting and polishing, turning them into superb jewels. With the aid of grants, the generosity of suppliers, and not a little determination, Bill and Rose now have a fully equipped lapidiary studio at their home and Bill is undertaking commissioned work, creating new jewellery and repairing existing pieces.
His first commission was to produce five crystal ‘wands’ all cut from one piece of Selenite stone.
The Bizfizz panel has helped by providing lots of contacts for selling crystals, including other start-up businesses as well as a number of reiki healers and crystal therapists.
The best thing of all is that Bill has something meaningful to focus on. He’s lost weight and been able to reduce his reliance on pain killers and other medication.
“I was very sceptical about crystal healing to start with,” he said. “But not any more. I don’t know how it works, but it does. I’m the proof.”
Alliance for Enterprise
Ada Lovelace House, Urban Road, Kirkby-in-Ashfield Nottingham NG17 8BY
Tel: 01623 457158 Fax: 01623 457170
