Decorating the tree is an activity we’ll all be taking part in shortly, with Christmas around the corner. The Cotswold Bauble company ran by husband and wife duo Abbie Duncan, 31 and Mickey Duncan, 37 is selling sustainably made and packaged baubles, to allow families to kick off their Christmas in an ecofriendly way.
The Cotswold Bauble company has been running for over 3 years now and originally started off as a hobby Mickey would do in his kitchen, during his time off work.
“I used to make them on the kitchen table, then it transferred into the garage and then we got a workshop in January this year as we’ve just outgrown this space.”
They first started selling the baubles on Etsy, until a shop in Stowe approached them, wanting to stock their decorations.
“To start with, we set up an Etsy shop and we made a few sales, but it was more like a little side thing and then when the shop approached us we were like oh my god people actually want them.”
Fast forward to now, Mickey has quit his previous job of 18 years to work on the business full time and Abbie being made redundant, was able to help out full time last Christmas. She now works alongside Mickey as well as doing freelance PR.
Although their main sales come from Etsy, their baubles have been stocked all over the country.
“We now mainly sell on Etsy but we are in a few shops and we launched our website this year. We’re stocked in the Gloucester Services, but the services are part of the West Morland family, so they’re all across the country.”
One of The Cotswold Bauble Company’s biggest selling points is their sustainable approach, Mickey says:
“We promote ourselves as a plastic free Christmas, obviously with all the plastic waste at Christmas time, we wanted to avoid any plastic.”
All their packaging is completely sustainable, and some parts are made from recycled materials.
“All our packaging is recyclable and sustainable, even down to the twine we use on the baubles, we’re conscience of and the stickers we use are made from recycled materials.”
Abbie has also created terracotta baubles this year, which they claim to be as sustainable as you can get.
“We’ve created terracotta baubles this year, which are literally made from scratch and are basically the most eco-friendly, sustainable bauble you can get.
Charity is another important part of their business, having worked with the British Red Cross for 3 consecutive years.
“This is the third year we’ve worked with them now, they contacted us on Etsy, and they wanted to create baubles with refugees to sell on their website. We did a workshop with 4 refugees, where they were able to mix different colours and select which ones went into their bauble. Each bauble has got a story behind it and has its own name, for example ‘love’ and ‘friendship.’ The first year they ordered 500, last year they ordered 2 and a half thousand and this year they’ve ordered 9,000.”
They are also donating some baubles to the Gloucestershire Royal Hospital for bereaved parents who sadly lose a baby over the Christmas period.
“The baubles will be given as something to remember the baby by and they will also be offered to bereaved parents who attend a local baby loss peer support group.”
The couple shared their hopes for the future of their business, hoping to grow and continue working with local shops.
“In general, we just want to grow really, we like working with local shops and branching out. We hope to expand the ranges and how we can be sustainable.”
