This is maybe a little personal for a first blog post - but I feel like it puts me and my business in context…. one day I will tell you how I started making jewellery or when and why I started my business but for now - this is the most relevant bit - so I’ll start here.
It’s been quite a whirlwind of a 6 months. In October we discovered we were expecting our second child, emotions were a bit mixed if I’m honest, after a difficult birth with my first. Just as I got my head round actually having another (I’m fine with the idea of having two kids, its the bit where I actually had to have it that made me nervous!!), sadly we lost it. On the 1st of December - bit of a bummer, I flipping love Christmas - not just the actual day but the run up to it. The festivities, the Christmas ‘experiences’, the decorations. Last year was different - it happened around me. Like watching the world through some sort of cine film.
At the time, Hannah Weston Jewellery was my ‘side hustle’ as they say. By day I was a high school Science teacher, I’d reached the dizzy heights of the upper pay scale and was curriculum coordinator for Key Stage 3 Science.
And then December 1st happened…. and I was sent into what I can only describe as spin. One where everything went blurry. I struggled to get my head round anything - I was signed off teaching for 3 months (the first time in my life that I’ve had that long off work).
The jewellery continued though - I kept making.
Over the period of the 3 months there were a lot of walks in the forest, chats with family and close friends, runs and counselling.
I came to realise that I’d climbed the mountain that was teaching. I’d been sitting at my top of that mountain looking at the view for a really really long time. It’s so easy to get comfy. Teaching is a GREAT job if you love it - and I taught Science, which is so much fun.
But life is short. We’re only here once. It dawned on me that I couldn’t sit at my top of that mountain until I retired. In the 3 months that I was signed off I’d had a mindset shift and I didn’t feel like a Science Teacher anymore.
So, I handed in my notice.
It took 11 years to work my way up to where I got to in teaching and I’d been doing the job for at total of 14 years, but I needed a change.
So now I do this…. I make meaningful jewellery full time (well… as full time as you can be in a lock down with a 3yo!) from my loft work bench in York. I aspire to a studio…. one day! Its tempting to refer to ‘we’ as a business - it feels small to say ‘I’. But it is just me… supported by a barrel load of incredible family and friends, but the business is me. My name. Making orders, packing orders, answering emails and DM’s and planning and delivering social media content. And I LOVE it. It brings me a feeling I can’t quite put a word on when you buy a piece, or send me feed back or commission something.
I’m so excited for this next phase in my business, thank you so much for being on this journey with me.
