Our Friday Feature this week is the brilliant Hannah from Hannah Weston Jewellery. Hannah creates thoughtfully designed jewellery – taking inspiration from people’s stories and connections to create pieces that not only look stunning but also hold so much meaning. As well as creating gorgeous collections and bespoke pieces herself, she also teaches others how to make beautiful jewellery through in-person workshops. Oh, and on top of that, she’s a blinkin’ lovely person too!
We asked Hannah some questions to get to know more about the wonderful woman behind the inspiring small business…
Yes! Very much so. I’ve always been creative – my Mum initially got me making things as a child, my Gran taught me to knit and use a sewing machine to make clothes and cushions. I loved creating things as a child. Into adulthood that’s continued to develop into creating a lovely home and garden for our family and making things with and for my girls.
When I was about 4, I went through a very determined phase of trying to do everything with just my left hand. I was born with no fingers on my right hand and actively tried to hide it as a child. My mum got me stringing buttons on shirring elastic as a way to encourage me to use both hands, she did a lot of dressmaking and had a vibrant mini haberdashery stashed away in a cupboard in our dining room. We’d tie the ends of the elastic together and make necklaces. I liked making necklaces, and bracelets. As I got older, buttons were swapped for beads and shirring elastic for jewellers cord. I did loads of creative things growing up but making jewellery was something I kept coming back to.
I try to start the week with an hour of admin/bookkeeping to stay on top of the numbers. I have a lady who does my tax return for me and she expects it to be ready to do the day after the tax year has finished – no midnight on the 31st for me! The rest of the week very much depends on what’s coming up in the coming weeks – I’ll look at the calendar – start a to-do list, check in with my quarterly goals and priorities for the week or month. I’ll check my emails and add anything to action to the list. Then I’m making jewellery, designing for commissions, deciding what needs to be sent out to my email list, shared on socials. Record snippets of content, liaising with other businesses that I’m woking with on various projects. This list kinda goes on and on. Every working day is bookended with the school run, which is a huge part of my ‘why’ for working for myself.
I’m really organised and a stickler for the details. I’m an ex teacher and I think while that means I can communicate with a range of different people, I’m also good at spinning a lot of plates which I think helps when you run a business.
I started out ’stringing beads together’ – literally all my jewellery was glass or crystal beads. Then I started to explore metal work and took classes. Sterling silver was introduced along side the beads. As my confidence and skillset with metal grew, beads were somewhat phased out and I began to fabricate higher end pieces from silver and gold. I introduced laser engraving after making a contact in Birmingham. It’s been a real journey and I still feel like I’ve only just gotten started.
All. The. Time. I think it’s completely normal. I feel like it’s not about not having the wobble but more about self awareness of when it’s going to start. Being kind to yourself. A wobble is just your head trying to keep you safe.
Oh gosh, I almost always give terrible answers to this type of question, I never think big enough!! Laser engraver, update some of my current kit to better versions, product photography, outsource service based stuff. Get all the new ideas I have out of my head, into metal and out into the world.
I’m sure being a creative woman does guide my business… but I don’t know if it’s a conscious thing – oooh this is a tricky one. I’m a creative woman raising two girls so I guess it’s really about setting an example for them. Making sure they grow up knowing they don’t need to be rescued like Disney might have them believe they do – that’s really important, I want them to be forces to be reconned with! My husband is dyslexic and his way of thinking is a huge asset to my business decisions.
I feel like this is such a boring answer – but I don’t really have one… I’m very much a ‘have a go’ crafter – last year I really wanted to re-landscape our front garden (especially after some neighbours did theirs and it looked super smart). We visited my brother at May half term and he loves a project and was mid project when we went. It was very inspiring. We returned home, and accepting we didn’t have the budget to have someone do our garden but I did know exactly how I wanted it to look, I realised there was actually nothing stopping us doing it ourselves. So I persuaded my husband. I told him it would take a weekend – HA! Nearly 3 months of weekends later we finished. And I love it. And it makes me so happy to come home. Now I’m plotting the back garden!
I have a couple of strategies: Early on in running the business I watched a Ted Talk on time management that a friend shared on social media – that taught me that I would find time for the priorities! So I break every project down into the specific steps needed to complete the whole thing and prioritise them. Then if I have 30mins free to do a task, I have a bank of priority tasks I can get done and really max out that time. I think acceptance is another big strategy… Ali Abdall talks on his YouTube channel about how he started as a junior doctor and on his first day he spent over an hour with each patient, he’d helped loads of people but when he left the waiting room was full. About a month in, he’d reduced his consultation times to 10 minutes – he saw loads more patients but when he left the waiting room was still full. No matter how much I work there will always be more jobs to do because my business isn’t static. So set boundaries, prioritise and accept you can’t do it all! (I feel like that should be on a poster, ha ha – also, I also have ridiculously high expectations of myself so I don’t find it easy to follow that advice I just gave!!).
Wow, thank you Hannah, for some great insight. There are definitely some helpful tips we can all learn there, hey! And if you’re looking for some beautiful jewellery with meaning, make sure you do take a look at Hannah’s creations either via her website: www.hannahweston.com or on Instagram: @hannawestonjewellery
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