The website launch

I did a thing – I built a website for my jewellery business .....

Building the website

It has taken nearly 8 weeks to achieve but I have finally finished the website. Originally, I was operating my business via an online selling platform who are really bad at looking after their sellers and also their fees are really high, so I decided it was time to leave. I’ll leave you guess who it was!

It took a while to decide who to use to host my shop but I chose wix ecommerce in the end as the reviews were very favourable and the price point seemed quite good.

Setting up took a while as I decided to re-brand with a name change and to reassess what theme my products were to be at the new shop. This meant that I dismantled quite a few items I had in stock and I also tweaked and improved other items. However, this has meant that I now have plenty of beads and materials to recycle.

On looking at the quality of my original product photos I felt I really needed to improve my jewellery images. To this end I had to upgrade my camera and after doing some research I purchased a refurbished iphone 12 as this particular model has had good write ups for the quality of the camera. I could not afford to spend any more and I must say that I am quite pleased with the results.

Considering that I have had to take over 800 photos in the first instance to re-photo all my stock I feel the iphone has earned its good reviews especially as I don’t spend ages on each shot.  I just don’t have the time.  I simply lay out the piece of jewellery, take about 5 to 6 images for each item and then move onto the next product – so it takes about 3 to 4 minutes for each product shoot.

I feel the photos have uploaded and rendered really well at the website so I am one happy bunny. I know they are not of super-duper professional quality, but all my jewellery is handmade and I feel the tone of my images reflects my business. I have aimed to maintain a theme for my images at the site by using a simple textured grey background which I feel works well.

My style

My chosen jewellery styles have resulted in two opposing themes – vintage inspired pieces and funky boho designs. I could have chosen to focus on one theme but I love working with both styles.

Making the whimsical floral vintage styles is very gratifying by being able to use such pretty beads like the Czech glass flower beads and then adding tiny accents with glass crystal beads.  In contrast, making the boho designs provides a real buzz and seeing the end result using bright coloured lampwork beads mixed with silver accents.

You may notice when browsing the shop that I have lots of different earrings in stock. This has come about by learning what sold really well when I was operating at the online store.  Purchasing earrings is an easier investment on the purse and is one item of jewellery that is easy to wear with many outfits.

Price point

The particular choice of materials I use allows me to make pretty and eye-catching jewellery that has a reasonable price tag. There are many, many jewellery websites selling items that are made of precious metals, but this means the prices are not available to many people. However, I do use precious gem stones in some of my designs and this allows people to buy something a little special. 

The future

I anticipate the designs at the shop to evolve over time and I hope to also include a few handmade clothing items utilizing my skills in creative textiles. It can be fun to cross-fertilize ideas like combining textiles with jewellery embellishments.

I hope you enjoy browsing my shop and that you find something special that you want to wear that adorns you with that finishing touch.

Happy browsing

Carolyn