by guest contributor Fina Tejada
Amity Roach is a young jewelry designer from London, England who runs her own handcrafted jewelry business, All Those Threes. She believes in using your creative expansion in art and in life without limitations. Her designs can be found at Etsy & Not High Street.
1. Can you give us a brief description of your business?
All Those Threes is a handcrafted, ecological jewellery business run by me, Amity, from my home in London, England.
The idea to start my business emerged from experimenting with various ways to express my creativity. I’ve always had a love for gemstones and get a lot of satisfaction from working with my hands on small-scale projects.
2. What did you do before you started your business?
I have always worked for myself; however, last year I took on a job designing jewellery for some of the biggest high street fashion retailers in the UK. I eventually became frustrated with a number of things. I was working in a very one-size-fits-all kind of framework, which felt very confining very quickly. No matter how hard I tried, I just couldn’t adhere to the idea that the general public is so limited in its taste. I have a lot of faith in the innate artistic-ness in the essence of humankind, which so often expresses itself through fashion. Suffice to say that I’ve gone back to self-employment full time and haven’t looked back.
3. Where do you sell your products?
Etsy, because it’s a beautiful site! I am finally selling quite well on there, but the ease & beauty of it is what kept me going in the beginning, when I wasn’t doing so well. NotOnTheHighStreet.com works pretty hard to bring in customers for you even though it costs a little more, which I have found to be a big bonus. FashionSpace.com, because it’s a well executed site. It’s still in Beta, but has a lot of potential in my opinion.
4. What can you tell me about your international customers?
They’re fabulous. It always blows my mind a little to think of how many countries my jewellery is being worn in. Some have even sent me pictures of themselves wearing my jewellery which is so awesome, it’s just so sweet that people take the time to do these things.
5. What do you consider is the best way you’ve attracted customers?
Having great, unusual products and top-notch photos are the best possible things you can do. Get yourself out there slowly but surely, it takes time to build up your own business, but it’s worth it. I’m involved with a couple of message boards which has been a godsend. People track my progress through these boards, they’re genuinely interested in my discoveries and the evolution of my designs.
6. Where do you see your business in the next few years?
I’m creating very different lines of jewellery from my past work right now, which is super exciting (should be going live within a couple of months). I see All Those Threes expanding many different ways, maybe even having a physical shop one day.
About the contributor: Fina Tejada owns Miss Fruitfly, an indie lifestyle company featuring artwork and home accessories. She is also a blogger who loves to cook, is a closeted reality show junkie and supports independent designers. She will be posting on the Indie Fixx Guest Blog featuring international indie crafters & bloggers to find out what motivates them creatively, how they started their businesses and how they approach the U.S. market. Fina will be posting periodically on Thursdays.