Belper News
Swearpigs are proving popular at charity auction.
The charity is close to Rich’s heart after partner Suzy was diagnosed with a brain tumour in 2012.
“The lowest we sold one for was £18 and the highest I think was £51.
“We’re saving the highly-sought ones until the end and we hope they will go for plenty!
“We did have a slight mishap when one of the pigs broke when it was sent back to me by one of the designers.
“However, they kindly agreed to do another design which I’m thankful for.”
Rich, aged 50, said that the response to the auction has been terrific.
He added: “I’ve had lots of good comments and people have been getting in touch asking what and why I’m doing it.
“People have appreciated it’s for a good cause and a worthwhile charity.”
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Gift Focus
Back in November 2014, SwearPig reached out to the artistic community to see if they’d decorate a SwearPig for its charity launch, with 85 per cent of proceeds going directly to Macmillan Cancer Support.
“The response was overwhelming (and a little scary!)” said Founder, Rich. “From November to just now, I have liaised with all artists. They’ve all been brilliant by keeping me up to date with their progress. I have posted their progress all over our social media sites. The results have been outstanding! To date, I have had 19 pigs returned. It would have been 20 but 1 broke. Don’t worry! I went back to the studio and had another one made!”
The auction started on eBay on Monday 13th April 2015 with the Sharon Stone #TigerPig. Each auction will last for three days and end at approx 7pm on the 3rd day.
To read more – and to see all of the SwearPigs up for auction visit:http://swearpig.com/2015/04/05/charity-auction-launch-confirmed-dates/
Derby Telegraph
A BELPER man hopes his new business venture selling piggy banks will create a stink.
But kind-hearted Rich Johnson won’t have his snout firmly in the trough as 90% of what he hopes to make will be donated to charity.
The 50-year-old has started selling his first ceramic money boxes under the name Swearpig and artists from across the UK have decorated them individually to help his launch.
On Saturday he was getting interest for his venture in Belper Market Place and for the next 20 days will auction each of the decorated pigs, one a day, to gain awareness of his business and to raise money for Macmillan Cancer Support.
Belper News
An auction of uniquely designed piggy banks is hoping to bring home the bacon in aid of charity.
Belper man Rich Johnson came up with the idea of designing the one-off pigs and selling them in order to raise funds for MacMillan Cancer Support.
The charity is close to Rich’s heart after his partner Suzy was diagnosed with a brain tumour back in 2012.
“Obviously when Suzy was diagnosed, I had time on my hands and I suddenly thought of a way of raising money would be to develop the idea of a piggy bank crossed with a swear box.”
Rich then pressed ahead with a plea to artists through Facebook to come forward and help design the pigs before auctioning them off.
“I appreciate art and I posted the idea up on Facebook and I had over 60 responses from artists around the world get in touch.” said Rich.
“Because of the logistics, I had to stick to UK artists but I whittled them down to 10 and then sent two pigs to each artist for them to design and decorate.”
The 10 artists, based up and down the country from London to Northumberland, have now returned the pigs to Rich and he is currently in the process of auctioning the items online.
Over the course of 20 days each individual pig will be put up on the site with each individual auction lasting three days.
Some of the themes of the designs include zebras and a special Catwoman pig.
“It’s seemed to get a lot of attention,” added Rich.
“Yes, it is just a piggy bank but I hope people see they are a bit more special and that there’s a human interest story behind them.
“These are all good, quality products and I’ve tried to keep everything in Derbyshire.
“The only thing that isn’t from the county is the cork stoppers!”
To bid for a pig or to find out more, check out the SwearPig Facebook page, follow on Twitter or visit the website at swearpig.com.
Read more: http://www.belpernews.co.uk/news/local/belper-man-s-piggy-bank-charity-venture-1-7212880