Guest Blogger Week 81 33 Hearts

I would like to say a huge welcome

to Adam & Rachel

 from 33 Hearts

1. Tell us a bit about you:

33Hearts is a small handmade jewellery business created and ran by a couple; Adam and Rachel.

Boyfriend and Girlfriend, they run the shop together. Rachel does the photography, designs and makes the jewellery and accessories, administration, keeping records and audits up to date, liaising contacts about events, processing custom orders and large orders and communicating with customers/inquiries. As well as running the social networking sites. Adam also makes some of the items, but mainly handles the financial side, ordering in materials, managing the finances and the postal and delivery of orders, whilst also contributing to the running of the social networking pages.

All of 33Hearts’ current pieces (As of September 2013) have been either:

• Hand-molded from polymer clay, baked and varnished. (And sometimes hand-painted).

• Recycled, up-cycled or transformed from game pieces, buttons, toys, computer keys and other no-longer needed bits and bobs.

• And other brand-new materials such as ring blanks, elastic, string, cameos and chains!  (Gold plated, silver plated and bronze/brass tone).

Our items are handmade by us, and are fun, funky, original, quirky and unique! –Because sometimes life needs a little more fun! ©

We make all our pieces in our spare time (which we don't have a lot of), but update and add more items as frequently as possible.

We both work full-time, away from 33Hearts, and live very busy lives! But doing what we love as a hobby is very important and enriching for us.

2. How did you decide on the name for your shop?

Well…

“33Hearts is a handmade jewellery business, set up by a boy and a girl, who are in love.

For every month they have been together, the boy and girl send each other a 'heart' as a reminder of how far they have come together. Whether it be in a text message, a little note, or on a post-it note stuck somewhere for them to find, on their first months anniversary one heart was given to and from each other… On their second month anniversary, two hearts were exchanged via text message or note. And on their thirty-third anniversary, thirty three hearts were exchanged.

And it was on this day, that the boy and girl who were in love, decided to set up their own jewellery making business. And so named it '33Hearts'.”

This is a true story, and we still give each other hearts on each month anniversary. Our name is very important to us, and has a lot of meaning, as it is personal to the people who run the business, and is at the core of what we do.

3. How long have you been open? 

33Hearts’ online etsy shop has been open since 6th July 2012. However, we were making items and decided we wanted to try an etsy shop, before this, in June 2012. So I guess this is how long we have really been around.

4. Where did you start?

33Hearts actually began by just making rings! Now we hand-make everything, from rings, stud/post earrings, dangly earrings, Bracelets, Necklaces and chains, Hair clips, Bobby Pins, brooches, pins, badges, cufflinks, key rings, key chains, special ‘sets’ and supplies! 

Rachel always loved fun and quirky jewellery from being a little girl, and wanted to experiment with it herself. Adam loves taking things apart, putting things together and coming up with new ideas. So we combined our interests and strengths (Rachel being obsessively organised and loving to communicate with new people, and Adam being strong at financial handling) and gave our dream of a business in jewellery-making a shot! We both love a challenge, and set out to sell our little items to as many countries as possible.  

5. What is your favourite item in your shop at the moment that you would like to talk about?

(As of September 2013) 

That is a REALLY hard one... But probably the polymer clay sweetie lollipops/candy pieces. 

They were the first thing we really mastered when we decided to venture out in to clay, and we still love making them the most; experimenting with colours and combinations, and putting them on everything from necklaces to key rings!

6. Where do you get your inspiration from?

We like to walk around shops in the town, browse online shopping websites etc. to see what is ‘in fashion’ at the moment, and then go for things completely different! Also, if we think of something random that we haven’t seen on jewellery before, than we give it a shot. (Like our ‘Dog Poo’ earrings…)

The aim of 33Hearts is to make things that are unique, and different to what other people are selling at the moment, so we go with that. I am looking at almost everything I see on a day to day basis in a way of: ‘Would someone like that on a necklace?’ 

We try absolutely anything we can think of, and find out if it works and sells.

We have never attended any jewellery-making/crafting ‘classes’, and are completely self-taught.

7. What other things do you like to do in your spare time?

Rachel works full time, but enjoys photography, films, music, their pets, theme parks, go-karting and spending time with close ones, as well her interest in Marilyn Monroe and Betty Boop!

Adam is a full time computer science student at university; he develops his own apps (available for downloading!), plays sports, watches the footy and enjoys various regular social activities with friends.

8. What would be the one piece of advice you would give to a new blogger or a person setting up their own shop:

Don’t listen to anyone else! You know what you want to do, and stick with those goals and philosophies. We wanted to make handmade jewellery and sell it at prices everyone could afford, and people criticised us.

We weren’t going to sell out on our ‘philosophy’. Keep your main idea at the heart of your blog/shop. We keep it at the heart of everything we do.

Also, set yourself goals and targets to drive your determination;

By our 1st year anniversary of 33Hearts, we had sold to 28 out of the 50 US states, and we only ever set out to make one sale to the USA! We had had 19 sales from Canada and 25 sales to Australia.-Additionally, we'd made online sales to: (Many places in England), Wales, Scotland, Germany, Sweden, France, Israel, Singapore, Italy, Croatia, Spain, Argentina, Denmark, Mexico, Norway, Belgium, The Netherlands, Greece, Russia, New Zealand, Ireland, The channel islands, and more!

Our goal made us determined to surpass it!

9. All social links (blog, shop, facebook, twitter, pinterest etc):

Like our Facebook page for frequently updated information and new products! : 

Facebook

Follow us on Twitter!

Etsy Shop

Website (Under construction)

Thank you ever so much Adam & Rachel

I love your work, especially the lollipop necklace.

Please check out their sites and shop as well!