Hi jewellery enthusiasts.

Beth here. This is our first blog post and I wanted to introduce myself and the studio as we celebrate our third year in business. Hopefully this gives you some inspiration, explains what we do and encourages you to also build a business that you love.

 

1. Becoming a jeweller

People often ask me how I got into making jewellery and my answer is that I learnt from a wonderful teacher called Alice Goldsack who was running evening courses just behind stokes croft at the time. I went every Wednesday evening after work to a mixed level class and found it completely absorbing. I love the craft, the physicality of it and how you create something so precious out of a messy, loud, and sometimes risky process. I started a little home studio and began taking commissions, repairs and creating stock. 

 

2. The idea for a studio

During the pandemic I was working for a company where I was building and running creative studios that were leading in their industry. In the day I was seeing how artists developed not just in skill and creativity but in how their individual businesses grew by working together in a vibrant, collaborative space. They would give share advice, watch each other work and discuss ideas related to their craft. I would then spend my evenings (and early mornings) working away in my cold, quiet private studio on jewellery projects, making and selling mostly on my own through online retail platforms and social media.

I naturally crave community and love bringing people together. With a background in events and project development I realised there was something missing from the jewellery industry and the idea for Silver & Steel grew. 

 

3. Business Planning

At the time Bristol City Council were giving grants to businesses opening up in disused retail space. I accessed free business education resources from places like Small Business Saturday, YTKO and Enterprise Nation. I combined that with what I had learnt in my day job and previous work experiences and designed a diverse jewellery studio that would engage jewellers of all levels in an accessible way.

I initially struggled to find a suitable premises as a 29year old with no trading history. I also wanted to be in an area with a strong local community and other independent businesses. I did find one premises which I loved but it was sadly bought by a developer. I eventually found 74 East Street and haven’t looked back.

 

4. Building a space

Actually building the space was a labour of love involving late nights, lots of giant veggie breakfasts from Sunshine Cafe and George’s on East Street, and carefully managing a very tight budget. I don’t come from large family wealth, which seems to be common in the jewellery industry and I didn’t have investors, but I do understand how to make things happen and sometimes amazing things are possible with limited resources when you have the right community around you. I’m lucky to have a wonderful support network of friends who chipped in and kept me sane throughout the build and the various hurdles involved in delivering a project of this size.

I had help ripping up floors, laying new ones, sanding, painting, plastering and decorating. I built our first website myself and did all of the social media and marketing getting ready to launch. I lined up designers for exhibitions and kept my jewellery business going slowly in the background while things were coming together. I wrote contracts, templates and agonised over finding an insurance company that would help with such a complicated business.

My market research had told me that I was onto a good thing though. Just one month into the refit, after a little flyering, word of mouth and posting on social media; I was lucky enough to have three residents sign up immediately to the offer of studio space – before we had even opened! I’m happy to say that two of these three are still here 3 years later, and the third still stocks her jewellery with us! They continue to be a wonderful source of support, opportunity and creative inspiration.

5. We made it

We opened in April 2023 and since then we have grown to have a wait list of over 20 people for our studio benches and a community of around 40 makers who access the tool hire ad hoc access option.

Silver & Steel is four things in one:

A Gallery: Having the retail space was important to the values of the business. To have people walk in off the street and discover small independent jewellery brands while also being able to see jewellery being made is fundamental to how we want people to experience and connect with their shopping choices. Understanding the craft and appreciating the work involved is the perfect antidote to fast fashion and we hope everyone who visits us considers more carefully where they buy their next piece. We promote the value in handmade design.

A Platform:  The gallery showcases designers who might not be stocked anywhere else. We hit a price point that pays people well but also engages shoppers who might usually be hesitant about buying fine jewellery. In the future I want to push our experimental offering and stock more art jewellery, bringing experimental design to people directly.

A Place to Learn: Our workshops, courses and events offer a pathway into jewellery making and the opportunity to learn from jewellers who are passionate about what they do. They are brilliant experiences, gifts and just something fun to do on your day off – to skills development opportunities for makers in Bristol, the southwest and Wales. We have people travel from all over the UK to access our courses and events.

A Studio: Resident Jewellers and Ad Hoc ‘Tool Hire’ users can create in a vibrant space filled with useful tools and equipment, built bespoke to their needs. Not only are we a practical studio space for jewellers but we offer the intangible value of being surrounded by others working in your field – the inspiration, conversations and learning that brings is hard to quantify but truly magical.

Most importantly we value the in-person connection that this space enables. In a world where we spend so much time online it’s lovely to be able to gather together and do something creative.

6. Onwards and upwards

I hope for the future to be able to offer more professional development for jewellers, specialise in more areas of sustainability (we have our sights on becoming a B Corp next year), and build more expertise in what we do.

I would love to expand what we do but for now I’m looking after the core and keeping incredibly busy running this wonderful space.

I hope you can visit us soon.

 

Beth 

Aka Bethany May Silver