Since I started making jewellery again back in 2019 after a 15yr break! (Yeah! Long time I know!) I’ve been thinking an awful lot about my branding, packaging and ethics as a business.

When I was making jewellery all those years ago everything was put in little black boxes as I thought that was more ‘professional’ and don’t get me wrong little black boxes do have there place, but it wasn’t with me!

After leaving university I had no business skills whatsoever so I didn’t know how to be me, I just thought I’ve had all this training and now I’m a qualified jeweller so everything has to look sharp and proper……but I didn’t know how to do that.

In 2019 I went back into those ‘old ways’ the little black boxes came back and my photo skills were awful! Throw in the fact I didn’t have any confidence in what I made and you have a woman who totally didn’t know what she was doing but knew she loved making jewellery so just kind of bumbled along! No business plan, no direction just bumbling along……but still knowing something wasn’t quite right.

But how could I look professional in my business? I knew in my head I wanted to be eco friendly, that was a major point for me, I wanted my ‘brand’ to be soft and natural and down to earth, as that’s me, that’s who I am.

How could I show that?

Then came a bit of a turning point, an epiphany and the start of my brand, I still had no business plan, nothing written down I was just literally following my heart and letting it guide me.

Hearts became my thing when I first started making again as it was the simplest thing to make while my head was struggling with anxiety.

I made some pieces and posted them on social media as that’s what I saw everyone else doing, the more people saw, the more they liked and I started to realise this could actually be a thing! People started buying, the more they bought the more I made and I realised I needed a proper apron…..an apron is extremely important when jewellery making as it saves your clothes looking like you’ve been working down a mine!

So I contacted another small business to have a personalised apron for me, I knew I wanted it cream (not the best colour for a jeweller but the one I had back in university was cream so it was kind of a nostalgia thing) she asked did I have a logo! Ummmm no, I’d not even thought of one, I’d not even thought of a business name let alone a logo!

She asked me a few questions, I told her hearts feature quite a lot in my work and back then I was working with copper as well as silver and my business name?

Well my business is me so Emma Hughes Jewellery it was!

She showed me a prototype of the design and poof! I had a perfect name and logo and perfect apron! Something that represented me!

Now….those little black boxes! Yes the boxes seemed more important to me than having a business plan, looking back my plan was kind of coming together even though I hadn’t sat and thought about it!

I knew I didn’t want to use plastic boxes that was a definite no go! But I couldn’t think of what would work. I kind of put that to one side and tried to sort my photos out, I knew I wanted natural looking photos so I used large pebbles to start off with……this still wasn’t right and now I had black boxes and grey pebbles!

Something was missing……….but what? I just couldn’t get what I wanted but I still didn’t know what I wanted!

Whilst out on a walk I started looking around me, I was walking along a river so naturally I was looking at the pebbles but then something caught my eye, a piece of bark was just lying on the floor…..that was it! That’s what I wanted! I picked it up, cleaned it and started using in in my photos!

It was perfect! Natural wood is now my photo prop, its warm, natural and rustic!

Every piece of jewellery I make sits or hangs on a piece of wood.

So….now I had my apron, logo and colour! My brand was coming together, everything is becoming more eco friendlier.

Back to the boxes! I started looking at all the different boxes out there and now my other bits and pieces had come together the beautiful brown Kraft boxes seemed to be meant for me, I still wanted that ‘professional’ touch so I tried logo stickers…..they were not for me, they didn’t look or feel right and weren’t eco friendly so I had a personalised stamp made and I love it!

My packaging was becoming eco friendly, I had the Kraft jewellery boxes, brown postal boxes and cream tissue paper and I always send out a cleaning cloth and care sheet.

My logo is stamped on my little brown boxes and business card is also inside……should you forget who I am!

My whole business is now as eco friendly as can be, I use recycled silver in all of my work and I melt down my own scraps. I’ve also started making jewellery with sea glass which is proving very popular and fits in perfectly with my business.

And as for my business plan.........I'm still working on that!

I'm still just following my heart and doing what I love.

Emma xx

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