This week in our Meet the Jeweller series we welcome Kelly Twigg of Willow & Twigg. You may recognise Kelly from her large social media community, where she shares jewellery making tips and tricks. Today we chat to her about her work and journey so far.
Creative Journey & Inspiration
What was the first piece of jewellery you ever made, and do you still have it?
The first piece of jewellery I ever made was a beaded necklace that I created whilst visiting a friend who made beaded jewellery as a hobby. I quickly got addicted too and went on to develop a HUGE bead collection of my own, and it was working with semi-precious beads that triggered my deep love for gemstones. I don’t make beaded jewellery very often now, but I do still have all the beads – and an equally large stash of gemstone cabochons instead!
The first piece of silver jewellery I ever made was a simple hammered ring band that I made during a one-day silversmithing course. I was interested in working with silver as the next step from beading but didn’t really know where to begin. It was this experience that cemented my desire to become a jeweller, and everything grew from there. And yes, I still have the ring!
How has your design style evolved since you started Willow & Twigg?
My design style hasn’t really evolved too much since the beginning, but I would say now that my pieces are neater, finished to a higher standard and have more intricate features to them which developed as my skills improved over time. When I started I tended to use more pre-formed components in my designs too, like ready-made tube settings or bezel cups, but I have steered away from doing that so much now and fabricate most things myself from scratch instead.
Much of my work is quite contemporary and modern in style, with clean lines and simple details. This still surprises me to this day, as generally I’m more of a ‘maximalist’ when it comes to most other things in life!
Do you have a creative ritual or process that helps spark new design ideas?
I tend to get my ideas directly from the gemstones and sea glass that I use, and a lot of my ‘new’ designs are actually things that have evolved from existing ones, when I find better ways to make them. One of my favourite ways to try something new though, is to have a dig through my pots of scrap silver and offcuts and challenge myself to make a new piece of jewellery from whatever is in there at the time. Some of my best-ever pieces have come about this way and it’s so satisfying to do.
Business & Craftsmanship
What’s been the most rewarding part of running your jewellery business?
One of the most rewarding things is getting positive feedback and kind messages from customers who have received my work. To know that you have created something that is good enough for someone to part with their money for, and that they will go on to love and treasure it for years to come is the best feeling. We pour so much of ourselves into our handmade jewellery and to have that acknowledged and valued is incredibly rewarding.
How do you balance creativity with the business side of things?
This is a hard one, and I think most people who start making jewellery and then go on to sell their work through a business will underestimate just how much work is involved with that. I certainly didn’t anticipate how much time it takes and how many additional skills I would end up having to learn along the way, and I’ll be totally honest and say I don’t enjoy that side of things as much!
I definitely spend more time on admin and business matters than I do actively making jewellery, and that is tough to accept sometimes, but necessary if I want to be able to sell my work and keep buying more silver and tools! Balancing it all out takes discipline and planning. Some things I do every single day, such as updating my accounts and processing emails and orders, and other things I tend to allocate whole days to, such as pricing updates or taking photographs for new listings.
And I try to keep at least one day a week as a ‘bench day’ to either learn a new technique, or practice my skills, or just make something new from my existing stone or sea glass collection. I feel this is so important to keep the creativity alive and not get so bogged down with the business side of things that I lose motivation or struggle to find the joy in what I am doing. I don’t ever want to get to that stage or not be able to recall why I started.
Can you share a memorable story behind one of your bespoke or custom pieces?
I don’t actually do many bespoke or custom pieces these days, but one commission I had a few years ago that I loved was when a customer in Canada sent me some sea glass that she had collected over the years with her family and asked me to turn it into jewellery. The glass itself was quite different to any I’d worked with before and was super smooth and had the most gorgeously deep pastel colours. The resulting jewellery came out beautifully and I loved the fact the glass had travelled all that way across the Atlantic ocean and back!
Materials & Techniques
What drew you to working with sea glass, and do you have a favourite piece you've found?
Sea glass was actually what got me into metalsmithing in the first place. I had been looking at resurrecting my jewellery making with the beads, as a potential business venture once my daughters started school. Up until they were born I had served as an officer in the Royal Navy, but wanted to go down the self-employment route once they were a bit older, so I could continue to be present for them at all times and maintain a better work-life balance, especially as my husband was, and is, still serving and often away from home.
I remember the first piece of sea glass I ever found on our beach several years ago. I was sitting on the shingle watching my children play, and picked up a smooth and frosty pale seafoam coloured piece of glass that was next to me. I knew it was glass, but didn’t have any idea that sea glass was a ‘thing’ as such until I started collecting more and more and started researching what it could have come from and what it could be used for. I decided I wanted to use it in jewellery and that’s when I got into metalsmithing and working with silver.
The best piece I think I’ve ever found was a large piece from a rectangular antique bottle. The piece is from the base and has been worn into a heart shape. I found it on my birthday one year, and even though I was born on the 8th July, the weather was really stormy that day and I remembered needing to wear my winter coat. I went down for a long walk and found the piece just as I turned to go home. It lives on my workbench now – far too big to be jewellery!
Do you have a favourite metal or gemstone to work with, and why?
I work mainly with silver, but that’s only because I cannot yet afford to work in gold! But silver is a beautiful metal, and looks especially good with sea glass as you get that wonderful contrast between the bright shiny silver and frosty opaque nature of the glass.
My favourite gemstone is probably Moss Agate though. I love that you can often get it in shades of pink and green, and the tiny details and swirls that occur naturally inside the stones create the impression of a tiny little universe. I have collected a lot of cabochons in this stone over the years. Each one is always unique and I love turning them into pendants.
Are there any jewellery-making techniques you’d love to learn or experiment with in the future?
Oh, sooo many! I recently completed the Diploma In Silver Jewellery with Jewellers Academy and learned lots of new skills over the course of the year, especially when it comes to stone settings and more advanced techniques such as flush, collet and tube setting.
Top of my list of things to do next include sand casting and more advanced wax carving techniques (so I can one day use the two together) and also enamelling. I have a small kiln that I use for silver metal clay work, and would love to be able to add colour to my designs by incorporating enamelling too!
Challenges & Triumphs
What’s been the biggest challenge you've faced as a jeweller, and how did you overcome it?
I think the biggest challenge I’ve faced as a jeweller is to learn to hold back and not dive in to making lots of different designs and trying out too many things all at once. I’m a terrible judge of what customers are actually looking for, but I get excited by new concepts so over the years have often made three or four of a new design just to test the waters and see how they are received. But then instead of focusing on marketing and promoting those and giving them time to become established, I kept on making more and ended up with a huge catalogue of designs with far too many to manage.
It was a bit of an eclectic assortment that I found rather overwhelming and I’m still working to cut that back down. I’ve had step back from getting carried away and instead focus on a smaller core collection of repeatable designs. I’m also trying to use my time more efficiently by making fewer ‘high-end’ pieces, instead of larger quantities of lower-priced ones that no longer produce a sustainable return profit-wise.
I’ve also stopped myself from jumping into new ideas or trying new skills unless I have the time to actually devote to them properly, especially if it would mean buying more materials or tools.
Less is often more, when it comes to so many things related to running a jewellery business!
Can you recall a moment when something didn't go as planned, but the result was unexpectedly beautiful?
I’ve had so many pieces that would fall into this category! I don’t often sketch out or plan my designs as I go, and instead allow them to evolve as I go along. I’m quite open to ‘going with the flow’ and if something doesn’t quite work out I’ll pivot and try it another way. I’ve had quite a few earrings that ended up working better as pendants and vice versa.
One of my favourite ‘mistakes’ was a small sea glass pendant I was making years ago. I tried to cut a flush wall around the bezel setting but accidentally made a tiny hole by sawing too close to the wall. I attempted to fix it by adding granulation all the way around the sides, but the solder still wouldn’t flow over that little gap. In the end I used a little epoxy resin to seal the underside of the setting so it could still be used for the original piece of glass and gave it an all-over patina to make it less visible.
This meant I couldn’t then sell it (using resin to patch a hole felt somewhat uncouth for a metalsmith) but the resulting pendant was so beautiful and I’m really glad I kept it. I wear it often and get a lot of compliments on it, and it’s a reminder to me that even things that don’t work out as planned can still be used and treasured – and I learned to take more care with my sawing and sanding after that!
Community & Impact
How has social media helped you connect with your customers and fellow jewellers?
Social media has been fundamental to me in reaching both customers and finding a community. Working alone as a self-employed jeweller can often feel isolating and lonely, and it’s sometimes difficult when you have nobody whose opinion you can ask or who you can put ideas past.
I set up my Instagram account at the same time as I started my business so the two have always run alongside each other, and I get so much out of it in terms of support, encouragement and advice. It’s a great way to ask people what they think of a new idea or design, and I’ve also learned a lot through the tips and techniques that fellow jewellers share.
I like to pay that forward by sharing a lot of what I learn too, as well as showing my processes and ‘behind the scenes’ insights of what I’m making and how. I think as a small business these days it’s so important to show up and stand behind what you are creating, and authenticity is so valuable in building trust and making lasting connections.
I’m so grateful for the community I’ve found through social media and Instagram in particular, and it really does help me with the motivation to keep going – knowing that I am still being seen and still have people to engage with and chat to, even during those quiet periods when sales are slow.
Personal Touch
What’s the most sentimental piece of jewellery you’ve created, and why?
I’m actually in the process of creating a wedding ring for my mother, which will probably always be one of the most precious and sentimental things I will ever make. She and my stepdad are getting married this year after being together for over twenty years, and they have both been so important to me and so supportive of my journey into making jewellery and running my own business.
To be asked to make such a special piece of jewellery, and to have developed the required skills to do it, is something I will always feel proud of and that means a lot to me.
If you could design a piece of jewellery for anyone in the world (past or present), who would it be and why?
I would love to design something for an artist like Taylor Swift or Lady Gaga. My middle daughter is a huge fan of Taylor in particular, and I think to be able to see one of my creations worn on stage or in a magazine by either of them would be such an amazing feeling! Not sure sea glass would be quite their style though…
Looking Ahead
What’s next for Willow & Twigg? Any upcoming collections or exciting projects?
I’m actually writing a book! Bloomsbury Publishing approached me earlier in the year about writing a book on making sea glass jewellery so that’s going to be my focus for the next few months at least. It will take a lot of work, and most of my focus for a while but I’m really excited to bring that project to life.
I’ve also been teaching sea glass courses in-person at Jewellers Academy Brighton which I love doing, and am hoping to take some classes myself there soon too. It’s a fantastic place to be and it’s such a welcome change to be working alongside other jewellers in a large dedicated studio rather than at home on my own all the time.
Where do you see your business in five years, and how do you hope it grows?
I’m hoping to be able to introduce more fine jewellery designs to my range, and work with more faceted stones in future as well as cabochons and sea glass. I’d also like to be able to take on custom work again and work with people to create their dream jewellery pieces, and am hoping to add more personalisation options to my designs too.
I’m also in the process of developing a sub-brand for Willow & Twigg called ‘Seaborn Silver’ and creating more of a clear definition between the sea glass and nautical-themed designs and the gemstone and nature-inspired pieces I make. It’s taking longer than I’d anticipated as I have so many other commitments right now, but I’m looking forward to seeing that launch in a year or so – once the book has been finished!
So in five years time I’d very much like to still be doing what I’m currently doing, but hopefully on a slightly larger scale and with a more distinctive and finely-tuned brand.
My ultimate dream is to have my own combined studio and shop so that I can also sell in-person as well as online, and teach workshops and classes of my own. That will realistically take me more than five years as I also have to wait for my husband to retire from the Navy and decide where exactly in the UK we want to settle, but I’m manifesting it hard at the moment and I’m determined to achieve it one day!
Visit the Willow & Twigg website here to browse Kelly's latest collections.
And follow Kelly on Instagram here to stay up-to-date with all her current projects and great advice!
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