GENERATIONS of Sally Reid's family played with a colourful box of buttons and beads. The treasure trove of glittering pieces was passed from her great-aunt Margaret to her mother, Florence, and then most recently onto Sally.

And it was this box of vintage goodies that would provide the 27-year-old award-winning actress with a supplementary career when the short-term theatre roles were thin on the ground.

"I remember these really gorgeous, shiny glass beads that she had played with when she was wee," says Sally, who lives in Shawlands.

"And likewise I had played with them as well. I have exhausted all of that box, so now I'm making new things to make my jewellery and adapting it from the idea of the box."

Sally founded Florence Box Jewellery - named after her mum - while she was working part-time in Kilmarnock Road boutique Bower Bird (formerly Nuala Ashe) alongside good friend and River City star Carmen Pierracini.

Having identified the kitsch, quirky designs that were popular with shoppers, Sally set about making her own necklaces, bracelets, brooches and rings using the found items in the box.

"There's a couple of pieces that I've kept for sentimental reasons," she says.

"At first I didn't know if I wanted to part with them, but we've held onto them for so long and now they've been recycled, so that's quite nice."

Items from the Florence Box range are priced from £2 for brooches and rings up to £30 for necklaces and sterling silver pieces. They are currently sold in three outlets: Bower Bird and Raw Vintage (both in Shawlands) and Bolshie in Bank Street in the West End.

Juggling acting and jewellery-making is proving a fulfilling challenge for Sally, who is currently charming young fans in a national tour of Katie Morag, adapted from Mairi Hedderwick's popular children's books of the same name.

Sally plays the lead character, Katie Morag McColl, whose adventures with Eriska the horse and the Struay cats on the weather-beaten island have kept audiences rapt since it premiered in 2005.

The musical production by Mull Theatre Company stopped off at the Citizens Theatre last week and will return to the area next week for performances in Easterhouse, Cumbernauld and Helensburgh.

"I read all the books when I was wee," said Sally, who moved from her hometown of Perth to Glasgow to study for an HND in acting and performance at Langside College.

"And having red hair and being a bit of a trouble maker, I likened myself to her when I was growing up.

"Now I'm up there doing it. It's very strange but fantastic at the same time.

"The kids love it. The other day, there were three wee girls waiting outside wanting me to sign their programme!"

Playing down her age is something that Sally has become accustomed to, having won acclaim for her portrayal of busybody Norma in Borderline Theatre Company's latest production, The Wall, staged at the Tron Theatre, and in playing a young Baby Jane in Whatever Happened To Baby Jane.

After the curtain falls on Katie Morag, Sally is jetting off to the US again to spend a month in Chicago with fellow actors she met at the Steppenwolf Theatre Company, with whom John Malkovich, David Mamet and Gary Senise have all worked. Her initial trip in 2004 was made possible after winning a £7500 grant from the Dewar Arts Awards trust, set up in memory of the late First Minister Donald Dewar.

Sally has also been booked to perform in a touring production of Lewis Grassic Gibbon's Sunset Song, to be staged at the King's Theatre in September.

"My jewellery company is a sideline to my acting career. When one is up, the other might be down," says Sally, who regularly scours charity shops and Polmadie car boot sale for buttons and beads for her work.

"It's a security blanket and it's now on an equal level."

Sally is part of the Glasgow Craft Mafia group of independent craftmakers, who will sell their work at a fair at Hillhead Library on Saturday (April 26th) and at a one-off event, Made in the Shade, at the Lighthouse, Mitchell Lane on 24th May.

"I like to think that the way I present my work and where the name comes from makes it a cute package.

"The vintage style is very in just now and it's my kind of style - a little bit different, eclectic and kitsch.

"My mum adores it - she's coming through to help me with the stall on Saturday.

"This will be her first outing as Florence from the box!"