Hi – welcome to Crafty Dog Cymru! We are Chris & Armelle Dignam and we started our small business here in Swansea, Wales, in the United Kingdom, way back in 2010. It all came from us hand painting glassware (lanterns and suncatchers) to sell at a craft market in our village and things grew from there. 

This first venture was Crafty Dog Designs.  Our name came from our involvement with greyhound rescue where we had first got the bug for meeting people and selling at greyhound jumble sales and fundraising at street collections.  When we needed a name and a logo for our craft business, what could be better than the Crafty Dog – a greyhound in an artist’s beret.  “Cymru” is the Welsh name for Wales, which we added so as not to confuse us with a Crafty Dog business in the USA.

A glut of Chilli’s in the greenhouse led to Mrs Crafty Dog producing our now legendary Hot Chilli Jam, the first batch of 12 jars of which we sold and never even had one ourselves!  From this the second part of the business, Crafty Dog Preserves was born.  We now supply shops, as well as the occasional craft fair and have a range of over 20 jams, chutneys and marmalades, (depending on what fruit or veg is in season) all still handmade in our own kitchen here in Swansea.

We also now publish books by Chris Dignam (one of our founders) under the Crafty Dog Books banner, available through this website, where £1 from each copy goes to Greyhound Rescue Wales. Click HERE to go to our Books pages.