Bethan Parry
she/her
Wrexham, Wales, UK
Bethan is a mixed media artist and art jeweller based in Wrexham, Wales. Working across materials including textiles, embroidery, metals, acrylic, crayons, and found objects, she creates wearable pieces that blur the line between jewellery, storytelling, and sculpture. Her practice combines playful experimentation with traditional craft, exploring themes of childhood, imagination, queerness, and disability.
Bethan’s confidence in her queer and disabled identity has grown alongside her jewellery practice, with each piece becoming both a form of adornment and an act of resistance to expectations of what is “proper” or “normal.” While embroidery and textiles remain her most peaceful and restful materials, she embraces whatever medium best suits the concept of the work.
Bethan studied Applied Art at Wrexham University, developing craft skills while cultivating a cross-disciplinary approach. Today, her work celebrates resilience, joy, and self-definition through jewellery that resists conformity and flourishes in its own playful, unconventional way.
“My freestyle embroidered and mixed-media jewellery is a way of flourishing. Each stitch, mark, or assembled material is unplanned yet deliberate, transforming ordinary objects into wearable narratives. Childhood, play, queerness, and disability run through my work as both inspiration and lived experience.
By blurring boundaries between ornament and storytelling, my pieces become declarations of resilience, joy, and self-expression. They resist being ‘proper’ or ‘normal’ and instead celebrate the freedom to create and thrive. My practice embraces material curiosity, improvisation, and play, making each piece a reflection of flourishing identity and imagination.”
How does your work relate to the theme of flourish(ing)?
“When I was younger, talking about being bisexual rarely went down well. Straight cis men assumed I existed to fulfil their fantasies, straight cis women treated me with suspicion, gay men called me greedy, and gay women thought I was experimenting. For a long time, I stopped speaking about it altogether.
The celebration of my queerness—and my disabled identity—has grown alongside my jewellery practice. Making gave me a language when words felt dangerous or misunderstood. Through textiles, embroidery, metals, acrylic, and found objects, I began to create wearable works that reflected who I am and who I was becoming.
My jewellery flourishes through play, experimentation, and refusing to conform. Family sometimes ask if I’ll ever make something ‘proper” or “normal,” but my work resists those categories. I am not proper, nor do I want to be “normal” in their sense of the word.
Flourishing, for me, means leaning into the unconventional. My jewellery blurs boundaries between storytelling and adornment, transforming personal history into objects of resilience, joy, and queer creativity. Each stitch, mark, or assembled material is a sign of thriving—proof that queerness and disability are not barriers, but fertile ground for growth."
Nosey Shot The Crow – Cotton, embroidery silks, ribbon, polyester stuffing, 6.3" x 4.7" x 118", 2024
How does your creative practice allow you to flourish (grow, thrive, blossom)?
“My creative practice has become the place where I can grow, thrive, and belong. When I was younger, queerness felt like something I had to hide. Talking about being bisexual rarely went down well, and the reactions I received made me fall silent. Making gave me another way to speak—a way to flourish on my own terms.
I work across many materials—textiles, embroidery, metals, acrylic, cardboard—choosing whatever best serves the piece I am creating. This openness reflects my belief that jewellery can flourish outside tradition, with no material too humble to carry meaning. Embroidery and textiles, however, remain my most peaceful, restful mediums. Stitching without patterns feels like a metaphor for my identity: not confined to rules or ‘proper’ expectations, but alive, adaptable, and open.
Making is playful, grounding, and healing, each gesture a reminder that growth happens incrementally. Through material experimentation, I transform personal history into wearable forms that celebrate resilience, joy, and self-expression.
Flourishing, for me, is not about fitting in but about thriving in my own unconventional way. My practice allows me to make queerness and disability visible, wearable, and celebrated.”
As a queer+ artist, what would you like to see and/or what do you need in order to flourish during this time?
“To flourish as a queer+ artist, I need spaces, resources, and recognition that embrace difference rather than expecting conformity. I want to see creative communities and opportunities that celebrate queerness and disability as strengths, where experimentation and unconventional materials are welcomed rather than judged.
Funding, accessible studios, and supportive networks are crucial—not just for the practicalities of making, but for the emotional and creative freedom to explore ideas without compromise. Mentorship and peer connection with other queer+ and disabled artists help build confidence and a sense of belonging that is essential for growth.
I also hope for broader visibility of queer narratives in contemporary jewellery and craft, so that my work—which blends embroidery, textiles, metals, and found materials—can be seen as valid, meaningful, and celebrated.
Ultimately, flourishing means being able to create authentically, without fitting into narrow definitions of ‘proper’ or ‘normal’. I thrive when my practice reflects my lived experience and values, allowing joy, resilience, and identity to take shape in physical form. These are the conditions in which my creativity truly blossoms."
“Scene Kiwi” (or Jay for short) – Cotton, embroidery silks, ribbon, polyester stuffing. 4.3” x 6.3” x 1.6”, 2024
“This work is informed by research exploring how my disability and queerness shape and guide my art practice.”
Anything else you would like to share about this work? This can be an important part of the process, sourcing materials, or research.
“Unicorn”, Cotton, embroidery silks, long grained rice, polyester stuffing, webbing strap, magnetic catch, stainless steel wire, 6.7” x 6.3” x 1.2”, 2025
Photographs Courtesy of the Artist