AWARD!!!

HALO Award being presented by British Hallmarking Council Chair Noel Hunter to Harriet Kelsall and I last Thursday.

If you’ve been following my social media posts, you’ll have seen that last Thursday I was presented with a rather special award.

“…The HALO (Hallmarking Awareness and Learning Online) Award is supported by the British Hallmarking Council and the National Association of Jewellers. Its objective is to encourage and reward promotion of the importance of the hallmark to all consumers browsing and buying fine jewellery or silverware online…” (taken from the British Hallmarking Council’s November press release)

My entry included a series of social media posts, a dedicated page on my website, and the introduction of a new “provenance certificate” for commissioned pieces that give details and an explanation of the hallmark applied to a piece of jewellery.

This award is a pretty big deal, and out of a “record number”(BHC press release) of entries, they picked just two joint winners, one of whom was little old me!!
I got to go to the very swanky Benevolent Society Ball to be presented with my award. It was a black tie affair, definitely not my usual sort of night out, but I think I managed to scrub up ok as well as fly the flag for some of my small business pals in amongst a room full of big jewellery, or at least jewellery related companies. I wore a vintage (well, I’ve had it 20 years so hopefully that counts as vintage) M&S dress over the top of a new sparkly dress from Aesthetic Laundry (https://al-impact.com), a second hand jacket from Vinted, gorgeous hand made bag from Curios Coco (https://curiouscoco.co.uk) and boots, that I already owned, but made a bit more black tie suitable with some silver ribbon laces, from Vegetarian Shoes (https://www.vegetarian-shoes.co.uk).

If you zoom in and look carefully you can see my name engraved on that magnificent trophy salver!

I share the award with fellow (but much bigger) ethical jewellery company Harriet Kelsall Bespoke Jewellery (http://hkjewellery.co.uk). As a company that I’ve admired for many years, it was a real honour to stand on that stage and accept the award alongside Harriet herself! Both of our names have been engraved onto a beautiful silver salver, that I was very happy for Harriet to look after for now as I don’t really have anywhere to display it, but hopefully it’ll be making its way to my studio at some point over the next year, if only for a brief promo visit.

Receiving this amazing award this week has been very poignant for me, as today (Saturday) marks one full year since I moved my jewellers bench out of that place that I’m not even naming, and into it’s temporary space in my house. Now, when I sit in my beautiful eco-studio, looking at how far I’ve come since this time last year, it really does make me feel very proud, and thankful to everyone that has helped me get here (you all know who you are! XX)

As well as the HALO award, back in May, I completed the rigorous accreditation process to become a fully certified BCorp, and then just a few weeks ago, I was shortlisted for a sustainability award from Heritage Crafts and Quest. I didn’t quite win, but I did get an honourable mention in the press release.

As far as actually making jewellery goes, I’m now having to take commissions on in batches, a few times a year, and close my list in between in order to keep up with demand. It’s still just me here though, so there’s quite a big limit on the amount of pieces I can be working on at once. I was asked at the Benevolent Society Ball if I had plans to grow my business, to which I answered no. I’m not going to pretend that my job isn’t still stressful at times, even in its micro state, and I really don’t think I want to add any more to that. I’m able to work from (very near to) home and (mostly) choose my hours, support my family, and in probably another year’s time, my lovely new studio will have paid for itself. There’s no mean landlords to have to deal with, and working in a place that makes you feel happy, rather than one that I couldn’t wait to go home from, does wonders for both my wellbeing and my creativity. I’m going into 2024 feeling very positive and proud of my tiny business!

(Photo credit for award shots - John Owen Photography)