IF YOU’VE stumbled across any glass trinkets bearing positive quotes lately, chances are you’re the recipient of one of Joanne Taylor’s random acts of kindness.

Joanne, who owns Callula Glass, a design studio in Tarporley where she handmakes glass trinkets, has been leaving bespoke sentiment gems in various places she visits for people to find – simply to bring a smile to the faces of whoever finds it.

The trinkets feature positive messages sandblasted to the surface, including ‘be happy’, ‘smile’, ‘dream big’ and ‘love’, and each has a tag accompanying it, explaining the gems are for the finders to keep or give to someone, with a link to Callula Glass’ Facebook page.

So far, the gems have been left at Delamere Train Station, Tarporley High Street and all over Chester, as well as Lake Bala, Barmouth sand dunes and even Buckingham Palace.

“Wherever I tend to go, I leave a few dotted about,” Joanne, 37, told The Chronicle. “It’s a bit daft how it came about – a few months ago I wrote a ‘40 things to do before I’m 40’ list, and one was to start doing little random acts of kindness.

“Because I work with glass, I was cutting some one day and it occurred to me I could make some to leave life-affirming messages for people to find and brighten up their day.

“I experimented on Tarporley High Street first because I live there, and left one to see if someone would take it, and I was so excited when I saw they had! I printed cards to explain the trinket was there for them to take and make them smile and I’ve had lots of lovely comments.”

The gems are made in batches, hand-cut from sheets of special glass before being fired in a kiln for 20 hours. Joanne then designs it on her computer, cuts from adhesive vinyl using a digital cutting machine then applies it to each gem before sandblasting it. Excluding the time in the kiln, each one takes about half an hour to make.

Joanne’s now creating more positive sayings for her gems. Although she made her first few using offcuts of material she had left, she’s now selling them as sets, complete with gift boxes.

“I’m having fun finding new places to leave them, and whenever friends go somewhere I give them a few to take and leave. Someone who’d recently lost their parents emailed me saying they found one of my gems on the sand dunes in Wales and it really made them smile.

“I don’t think I’ll come to a point where I stop doing them – I love it and am thrilled to hear back from someone telling me they’ve found one. Hopefully it makes their day as much as it makes mine.”

See a video of Joanne Taylor at www.chesterchronicle.co.uk.

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