Time for another burst of creativity on a Friday! One thing I've always wanted to do more of, is interviewing small-business owners in their own studios. There's something about seeing all of that inspiration, mixed with random knick-knacks and past collections that is so exciting to me and gives a real sense of what a person is like. After spotting some of her wares at #EtsyMadeLocal, I knew that I wanted to interview Lucie Ellen, a jewellery and homewares designer who works out of her garden studio in East London. With two cats for company and a unique way of making, I thought her story would be useful for any of you who are thinking about signing up to the Etsy Resolution programme, wondering how this business malarkey all works or just in need of a new necklace to buy.
LUCIE ELLEN
I did an art foundation when I was 18, which was the best year of education ever. If I could do it again, I would. At the time, I thought I wanted to be a graphic designer, so I went to Anglia Polytechnic in Cambridge, did a year there and didn’t like it. I left early and decided to go to LCP (now LCC) but didn't like that either. Eventually I realised that I didn’t actually want to be a graphic designer, so I took some time off and started working in a vintage shop. I’ve always been making things my whole life. I remember badgering my Granddad at the age of eight, saying that I wanted to cut things out of wood and make them into badges. I found some of my attempts recently and it was so surreal! I started making jewellery properly in around 2007. It was only when a friend complimented it and told me I should get a market stall, that I seriously considered making it into something more.
My style was completely different at the time, it was literally Early Learning Centre animals with brooch pins stuck on the back. It wasn’t particularly technical. I mostly used found things, like buttons, components, toys, even tiddlywinks and glued them together. I then started working in a workshop and got into woodwork. It’s only in the past 2 years that I’ve found an aesthetic and way of working that I’m finally happy with. Admittedly it’s been a lot of trial and error, trying different kinds of wood, paint and varnishes. I don’t think anyone else really works the way I do and I’ve had to be really inventive. Now I’ve figured it out, I can focus more on the design. It seems to be working, I’m doing really well at the moment, *touches wood* and I’m making the things that I want to make, rather than the things that I think people want.
I started selling on Etsy back in March 2010. It was a really exciting thing and not many people had heard of it. It had come over from America and the aesthetic there was just so incredible and different to what was going on with the handmade scene in Britain. I just knew I wanted to be part of it and see if anyone wanted to buy anything. It’s been hard work. Photography has been a huge learning curve and product descriptions too. I’m not a writer. On some days it can come really easily but on others I can just about remember how to speak! There’s always been the Etsy seller handbook and the blog, which has been handy. At that time it was fairly easy to get found, there were fewer people and some tricks that would let you get right to the top of the search results. Through that I had a lot of people saving my items and buying things. Etsy UK also really got behind me and gave me a lot of promotion so I was really lucky.
Due to family commitments, I needed a flexible job. At one point I was working in the vintage shop that sold my jewellery four days a week, doing a market every Saturday and Sunday and spending my 'day off' making stock for the market. I knew I couldn’t carry on like this. I had a chat with my Granny and she was great, she basically said ‘I think you should start taking your jewellery making a lot more seriously and think about leaving your job.’ I probably did leave my job a little bit too early and did run out of money but then I moved back to my Mum’s in Suffolk for three years. Eventually there was a point where I had enough orders to sustain myself and realised I could move back to London. I don’t have projections, I just look at how I’ve been doing which is a safer way to do it in my opinion. If you’ve got something you could fall back on, then that’s a really great thing.
I’m still learning about marketing and social media. Marketing is probably the hardest part of the job but it’s something I’ve got on my agenda for this year. I know my stuff sells, it's just getting it out there. Instagram has been the best tool for me, my sales have gone up since I started using it, even though I’ve got just over 3k followers and still don’t really understand hashtags. I feel comfortable using it though, I’m not one for self-promotion but it’s a really creative way of getting your product out there. One of the downsides is that it’s difficult to not compare yourself to people. I’m at home on my own and all I ever see of everybody else is what they want me to see, which tends to be positive. Then you see them in real life and they say 'Oh, I've been so awful!' Comparison and jealousy can be a debilitating thing, but fortunately there’s been a lot of posts written about it.
I have quite a few stockists in the UK, some in Australia, Europe as well. Selling wholesale is a very big side of my business. I used to get a lot of people finding me through Etsy, since I make it clear on my shop that I have a catalogue and understand the terminology. It’s important to make sure your pricing is correct, even if selling wholesale isn't on your agenda at the moment. If you retail your work at the wholesale price and a shop later comes along to ask what your wholesale price is, then you won’t be stocked as you’ll be a competitor of your potential stockist.
If you’re thinking about setting up an Etsy shop, just do it! If you don’t try you’ll never know. Just don’t copy anybody, make sure your pricing is competitive but high enough so that you’re not undercutting people. Even if you’re doing it as a hobby, pricing your stuff too low affects those who do it full-time and it puts down the whole industry. In the beginning, I priced my work too low but then I had a day and sat down and worked out all of my costs. It was the most boring thing, but I now have a formula that I can follow and it’s makes things a lot easier. Also, I’ve done enough fairs so that I know what price points are good and how much people are willing to pay.
Selling at markets has been so important for me. Definitely make sure you have a business card with your Etsy shop on. I always get more sales once I’ve done a market, since not everyone impulse buys and people might consider them for future gifts. It’s also good to get out, meet people and become part of a community as it can be quite isolating working on your own. I did markets twice a week, every week for years and that, combined with Etsy, has helped me get to where I am. I’ve made so many friends by doing Designers Makers at Spitalfields, Crafty Fox and Renegade Craft Fair and seeing the same sellers again and again. They're a real support network.
Forging your own path is a great thing, but you can feel quite tied to it because you’re doing it yourself. You feel a responsibility to this thing you’ve invented that's been really successful. If I had to get a job, then I would if it meant that I could keep Lucie Ellen going. But I’ve been lucky so far. You get defiant after a while. Once I had my studio and things started to go really well, I started to believe in myself more. I don’t want anything to happen to this, I love it so much and want it to continue. Passion and soul can go a long way. People come into this with business plans, objectives and a PR budget and I’m just sat here working in my shed! It’s difficult not to get caught up in it but you just have to do what you want to do. You have no idea what’s going to happen.
2015 was the best year I ever had. I took a month off in May to go travelling and still managed to keep going. The #EtsyMadeLocal event in December 2015 was a real highlight, the best fair I’d ever done. It was a real confidence boost, I even cried in front of one of the Etsy team! I’d love to expand on the retail side of my business, it'd be great for some more shops to stock my work, plus I'd love to do more commissions and exclusive pieces. I haven't had any major press yet, though a woman in Australia wore my necklace on the tv once and that was bonkers! She was on a weekly reality show and I only realised when one of my customers sent me a screenshot and told me how huge it was. I Googled it and found pages of tweets asking about the necklace so I pretended to be someone else and pointed them towards my shop! I sold hundreds of that particular necklace and I still get orders now, even though it was five years ago.
I’ve got some new products in mind that I can’t really make but I know people who can help. I just want to do everything really! I want to hand print my fabrics and get them made into make up bags and pencil cases. I want to do it by hand for the time being and just see how it goes. It’s a learning process coming up with a product range, you can get lost and muddled if you decide to do too much. I like to be in control and stick to what I’m good at, without trying too many things. As long as you can really try and keep the aesthetic consistent, then hopefully it’ll be alright. I feel like it’s something I’ve got to try as it’s been on my mind for years now, branching out a bit. We’ll see!
Are you feeling inspired after reading Lucie Ellen's story? I think it just reinforces that you make your own luck in a way. After taking time to develop a product and doing markets on a regular basis, Lucie's managed to carve out a creative career that suits her to a T. It's tricky to emulate exactly though, everyone has specific circumstances and an instinct that lead them to start a creative business. I could liken a lot of it to blogging in a way, a gradual process that turns into something unexpected. Also, since you do have to manage so many elements from accounting down to production, it's impossible to be perfect at everything all of the time. There are busy periods when it seems like it'll be impossible to manage everything and others where you can recharge and figure out what's coming next, but somehow it just works. I think you have to just be open-minded, realistic and definitely make use of all the advice out there such as the Etsy Resolution programme, which breaks it all down quite handily. I definitely realised a few things that I can apply to my own freelance situation, like feeling tied to a certain path because you created it yourself. It was definitely a reassuring conversation to have during the second week of January, hopefully it'll be useful to some of you too!
Have a look in Lucie's shop and be sure to follow her on Instagram to see snippets of what running a creative business is like!
This post is in collaboration with Etsy.