Dalton’s Danielle Aspinwall has come a long way since she swapped her creations for crisps and biscuits.

Great British Life: Danielle creates artisan jewelleryDanielle creates artisan jewellery (Image: Milton Haworth)

As a schoolgirl from Blackpool’s South Shore, young Danielle Chappell used the sewing skills learned at her grandmother’s knee for her first foray into the business world, trading the items she made for crisps, biscuits and pop.

That first foray into business whetted her appetite for commerce and she now makes and markets unique handmade earrings, necklaces, rings and bracelets and she also buys, upgrades and sells clothing.

Danielle’s grandmother Betty was a well known tailor at Diana Warren’s in Blackpool and later opened her own workshop.

Betty taught an eager seven-year-old Danielle how to use her Singer sewing machine making teddy bear clothes and hair scrunchies which she took to junior school and exchanged for chocolate biscuits or crisps from her friends’ packed lunches.

Great British Life: Danielle with some of her jewelleryDanielle with some of her jewellery (Image: Milton Haworth)

Danielle graduated from Manchester Metropolitan University with a first class degree in Embroidery Textiles, and went on to qualify as an adult teacher.

Now 38, she continues to design, make and sell her handmade items trading as Yappers Chappers Design and travelling, most weekends to artisan and vintage handmade markets in Blackpool, Preston, Manchester, Leeds, Lancaster, Liverpool, Barrow and Ulverston but now the currency is cash.

Mum of two Danielle, now Aspinwall, produces handmade jewellery, using a method of knitting aluminium wire and then fabric is sewn into the various designs; the material used is nickel free which means people with sensitive or problem skin can wear it.

‘I adopted the name ‘Yappers Chappers Design’ because my maiden name was Chappell and my pals gave me the nickname Chappers and Yappers because I was a serial chatterbox,’ she said.

Great British Life: Some of the art Danielle has been making during lockdownSome of the art Danielle has been making during lockdown (Image: Danielle Aspinwall)

Yappers Chappers Designs was launched in the summer of 2012 in Blackpool, the first showcase of her handmade jewellery was sold in the pop up shop Me & Yu exhibition, this led to her selling her work at Blackpool’s Grundy Art Gallery and then stockists all over Lancashire.

Danielle moved from Blackpool to live with her partner Martin Aspinwall in Wigan where she opened an art studio and shortly after they tied the knot.

In 2015, Danielle and Martin moved with their one-year-old son Solomon to Dalton-in-Furness where Yappers Chappers Designs still continues but is focussed more on stockists and online social media for the business. She is also Artist in Residence at Ulverston’s St Mary’s Hospice Re-cycling Warehouse in Barrow.

Now, with Sadie aged two and Solomon aged five, the family live in Dalton-in-Furness after Martin signed for Barrow Raiders Rugby League team.

Great British Life: Danielle creates artisan jewelleryDanielle creates artisan jewellery (Image: Milton Haworth)

‘When I first moved to Dalton-in-Furness, the first shop to show any interest in stocking my work was TP Frameworks framing and gallery gift shop in Market Street, where they stocked my handmade Yappers Chappers Designs products.

‘Becoming a mum is amazing, but I did suffer with severe post natal depression with my first child Solomon and recently I have been developing creatively and adding what I was before motherhood into the mix around my family life.

‘Over the years as a practicing visual artist I have been commissioned by councils in Manchester, Blackpool and Allerdale and Arts for Health with the NHS and I had some large textile panels installed at Blackburn Hospital.

‘I won a place in the final of the Nationwide Mercury and Music awards in the Gallery Hospital in Covent Gardens. I also decorated a life sized cow for the Manchester Cow Parade that sold for £2400 – it raised more cash for charity than both Vivienne Westwood’s and Jarvis Cocker’s cow designs!’