My Most Successful Collection Yet
I won't lie to you - it's been a weird year for this little business and I had a very slow spring. I completely understand why - given the constant bombardment of terrible news, the state of the economy, and whew. Yeah, it's a lot.
I've wondered if it's even worth it to continue making and selling jewelry. Jewelry is a luxury item, and it feels strange peddling a non-necessary item when every day there's just more and more bad things happening. However, making art brings me joy, and is truly an outlet for me when I feel sad or hopeless. It's a way to get out of my mind and into my body and the present moment. Soooo, I went ahead and made a new collection. The Coastline Collection. I wasn't expecting much from launch day - not because I wasn't proud of it - but because of how everything has been going lately.
Imagine my shock when you all showed up. The collection was half sold out the day of the launch, and all but three pieces have sold since. There's one pair of earrings and two shell necklaces left. I haven't had this type of reaction in quite a while to one of my updates, so I was reflecting on why that happened.
1) I pushed myself outside of my normal designs. By creating new and exciting pieces, I think this invigorated you all to want to invest in a piece of mine.
2) I pulled out all of the stops for marketing. I took photos along the coast instead of using my light box. I cross-posted every post from Instagram to TikTok, Pinterest, Threads, and YouTube shorts. I wove a story about the collection through a combination of photos and reels.
3) Most importantly, I was incredibly passionate about this collection. It was designed around the Maine coast, incorporating elements like shells, lobster claws, ocean waves, and lichen-covered rocks. By creating a collection that showed my passion (the coast), it showed through and you all became passionate about it as well. Or maybe you all just love the coast - who knows!
I think that all of this together led to such a successful update. In the past, I've released a few pieces here and there that I haven't been as passionate about just so I can release some jewelry or have a new collection to update about. The key is not doing this, but really, truly being in love with each and every piece that's put out there.
Thank you, thank you, thank you for showing up. It gave me the energy I needed going into my next collection, and I can't wait to design more pieces of jewelry for you.