Hello hello! and a happy new year. I do hope the festive period was kind to you - almost all the people I know seem to have had the lurgy in degrees varying from a cough and splutter to full blown coughing up blood and chest x-rays!
2023! Twenty three!!
Blimey.
I remember daydreaming in secondary school thinking one day about how far off the decade 2020 felt and here we are. But excitingly, 2023 marks 6 years of Hannah Weston Jewellery, when what started as a hobby when I was a child turned into a side hustle with a logo and social media pages and customers I didn’t actually know! It’s been a rollercoaster. I thought it would be fun to kick of the year with a look at some of highlights of the last 5 years - I must say at this point, for a dash of reality in what will be a lovely hug of a blog, that there have been lows…. commission deadlines that I missed, collections I still haven't launched and a lot of exhaustion because our littlest isn’t fond of sleep! But alas, here are the things that did go right (If you’d like the near misses blog, do let me know - I’m here for being real and very happy to write it!)
1. We got ourselves a logo
This really marks the start of the first transition from hobby to side hustle. In a sleep deprived haze (I’d not long since had child no. 1) I emailed Meg at Lemon and Birch and asked her if she would design me a logo for my hobby. Imposter syndrome meant I missed the zoom call where we were going to chat about what I wanted. And it didn’t help that I didn’t really know what I wanted. My first logo was very beautiful but I found myself not really using it to its full potential - it didn’t feel very ‘HWJ’ which was evolving at a rate of knots from stringing beads together to the designs you see today. So a year later we did a big glow up… again with Meg. Sort of a bit of a rebrand, although not many people knew about the first incarnation! Over the last 5 years additional icons have been added, shades of our brand colours have been tweaked but the core has remained, clean lines and our signature handwritten style font.
2. We got ourselves a hallmark
This was a real ‘pinch me’ moment….
Dear 14 year old Hannah,
In the future we make jewellery out of silver and gold (and GOLD!) and we send it off to professional people in Sheffield (who are lovely, by the way) and they laser a mark on that jewellery that confirms what its made of and where and when its made. It’s all very official and VERY cool. Well done, kid!
One of the things that I love about my hallmark is that rather than picking a design from the sheet they sent me, I thought I’d be cheeky and ring up and ask if my logo could be turned into a hallmark and they said YES! Like my logo, I’ve had two versions of my hallmark…. you might say I struggle with commitment or decision making.. or maybe a bit of both.
3. We collaborated with Walter and May
I met Beth when I drove passed Walter and May when it was in York - I thought it was on an entirely different street and then found myself one lunch time at the traffic lights on another street absentmindedly gazing into space and I realised I was staring right at it! I popped in and bought some cards and was too scared to say anything about all the Instagram dm’s we’d exchanged!! Beth sold jewellery and was looking to develop her range, particularly having some pieces specifically designed for the shop that had meanings. Meaningful jewellery is our thing so of course I said yes! The Belyse, Erobre and Signature collections were born (although they had different names then… can you see a theme running through the business so far?!)
4. We received some utterly lovely reviews
It goes without saying that Hannah Weston Jewellery wouldn’t be a thing if it weren’t for you, our customers! And you’ve said some wonderful things about us over the last 5 years.
5. We found ourselves selling in John Lewis
I have a motto… ‘say yes to every opportunity [unless it’s illegal or I’m already busy!]’ I got this motto from my Mum! In 2020, this motto meant applying for to The Great British Pop-up to do a week long pop-up shop in John Lewis. I LOVE John Lewis and have since my adopted Godmother Yvonne introduced me to the brand when I was at University. I was BEYOND excited when the York store opened (and equally heart broken when it closed, I still am, it’s a sore point! Let’s speak no more of!!). I wrote my application and went through all nearly 4k pieces on their website to make sure I wasn’t going to submit competing pieces. I never expected to be accepted but I was! and I had 5 weeks to prepare. I’ve never made so much jewellery in my life. I had an absolute blast of a week, to date it was one of my favourite business achievements.
6. We launched 6 jewellery collections
It’s funny to think that when I first opened my Etsy shop, I didn’t have any collections of jewellery at all. Everything was a one off. With some questionable designs and some very cringy packaging. As I cast my mind back, I’m not entirely sure when the collections thing happened. But I remember I started designing in collections after giving my Dad a cushion from Girl and Bird for Christmas in 2016 - it’s burgundy (his favourite colour), it has an old railway sign style to it (he’s a big railway geek) and it said ‘Grandad - Established 2016’ and when the layers of meaning unfolded before him, his response was one that I knew I wanted to give everyone of my customers when they purchase a piece from me.
The Elsker collection came first, followed by the Blomst collection. Erobre, the Signature and Belyse all came together followed by Dette Er Meg.
In the early days, I struggled to see a common thread or style across my collections, so I decided to tie it all together, I would give my collections Norwegian names as a nod to my kid brother who lives in Norway with his wife and children.
7. We started running jewellery workshops
I have this thing with teaching people stuff - I’ve loved it since I was a child, Explaining things. Passing on the magic. The pure joy of the penny dropping or the [as the case is now] solder flowing or the alchemy of getting a high shine polish on a piece of silver. I’d been thinking about running jewellery workshops for a while and just as I was going to pitch the idea to Beth (Founder of Walter and May) she asked if I would be up for it. I adore running jewellery workshops, the atmosphere is fabulous and there is something about passing on this ancient craft that I can’t quite put into words. As I write this we have 3 new dates for 2023, head to the workshop page to book your space.
8. We’ve had 4 wonderful stockists
I never dreamt that my jewellery would be sold in high street shops… it wasn’t even on my radar. The first was Walter and May, which happened through collaboration. Over the last year, we’ve also added Plum in Malton, Birdies Perch in York, Hesta Scene in Cumbria and Rob and Roo (Online) to the list. We’re always on the look out for new avenues so if you own a bricks and mortar store or have a local favourite that you think we would sit well in do let me know.
Its been wonderful and slightly indulgent to look back over the last 5 years, thank you for being here with me, however long its been. I can’t wait to see what the next 5 years holds.
