Clearing success story: University for the Creative Arts

Clearing 2024

Abigail's story of studying at University for the Creative Arts

Abigail is a UCA alumni, business owner and silversmith.

Abigail talks about her passion for jewellery making and how UCA helped her on her journey into entrepreneurship.

My name is Abigail Marsh and I am a jewellery designer and silver smith. I graduated with a jewellery degree in 2018, I'm a small business owner and have been for a few years now.

I started my business when I was an artist in residence at UCA. When I first got the key to my workshop that was a massive moment, my work bench is actually one of the old university benches before they revamped, they really helped kickstart my small business and they gave me all the tools.

They gave me branding lessons, website design and all the gritty things that you need and you don't necessarily think about when you're a maker or a designer. I started with literally just the one bench and slowly grew to a kitchen cabinet and then when I bought my second bench, that was quite incredible, and I knew that it was growing from then.

UCA has really helped me in my career field by keeping the connections alive with people at the universities and asking them how did you solve this problem. What I would say to someone applying to go to UCA is do it, don't hesitate, being surrounded by all these incredible people who just understand what you're going through and what your brain is thinking and being in a creative place all the time, surrounded by amazing people, I will never forget my time at uni because the connections that you make with the people around you is incredible; so yeah I’ve got big dreams to keep going.