Meet the designer – 5 mins with Sarah Todd
As you already know my name is Sarah and I've been day-dreaming about jewellery for longer than I can remember. I would say it doesn't take much to keep me happy in life, especially if you find me with a cappuccino in hand and getting lost in something creative.
Back when Seek & Find was only a figment of my imagination, I often wondered about what having my own business would look like.
I’ve answered a few questions below about my journey so far...!
1) How did you first get into jewellery design?
I often think back to the little girl who just loved making things and dreamed of doing it for the rest of her life. Growing up, I spent many rainy Saturday afternoons making floral jewellery from scraps found in my mum’s floristry store, as a way to pass the time.
As a teenager, I quickly discovered the joy of using more sophisticated materials and so my bead collection began. If I was to tell you I still own boxes and boxes containing thousands of beads, I wouldn’t even be slightly exaggerating (you can ask my husband!!).
Having decided that a floristry degree was not as interesting as my mother thought (I left after 1 week), I found myself at University studying a fine art’s degree. It was at this point in my life I would discover my love for travel and would go on to collect beads from all around the world, although I quickly realised, I spent more time pulling apart the different designs I made in order to re-use the beads in other ideas I had.
At this stage, I never fully grasped the concept of creating a business or creating something to sell, until I entered a local jewellery design competition, which I not only won, but resulted in a job offer with a large jewellery retailer and began a journey that whilst having twists and turns, would ultimately prove to be the beginning of my dreams coming true.
I spent the next 8 years gaining professional industry experience as the companies Designer and Head Buyer, designing and buying everything from fine contemporary silver to market lead fashion jewellery. This really opened my mind to a whole new world of possibilities and from the very moment I designed my first collection, I knew I had just found my passion in life.
Having just celebrated Seek and Find Jewellery’s first year in business and now looking forward to 2020 with a sense of excitement, I can confirm, I am living that little girls dream.
2) How did you come up with the Seek and Find Brand?
Seek and Find is an idea that evolved over many years, until it felt just right. From those very first set of designs I always thought of jewellery in a very meaningful way. Every piece had to have a reason, story or meaning behind it and my goal was always to create designs that would resonate with people in some way.
If you think about it, we already do this, whether it’s the bracelet your parents bought you on your 18th birthday, the ring produced by your soon to be fiancé while he’s down on one knee, or that necklace handed down through the generations, we ascribe meaning to our jewellery and wearing it allows us to relive those personal, hidden memories forever.
Seek and Find is all about offering more than meets the eye, hence the name, we want you to seek and find the meaning behind our jewellery and then carry it with you, wherever your dreams take you. I fully believe in the power of words and always encourage positivity and so, this is the starting point to every Seek and Find piece.
Our main purpose is to create original designs that you fall in love with and want to fill your life and jewellery box with.
3) What are some of the challenges you have faced?
The daily reality of running a business has been vastly different to what I ever imagined it would be. I have had to take on many roles outside of my natural instinct, with my desire to spend all my time being creative – creativity doesn’t naturally spring to mind when you think of things like accounts or bookkeeping and yet they are essential to running a business.
Although it is a dream come true to have a flexible working schedule and being able to work from home each day, you lose the normality of a working day structure so I had to learn to become a lot more organised and motivated, in order to keep things moving forward. Do I continue re-watching Friends for the tenth time, or do I complete that stock check I've been putting off?
As far as the product goes, I pour my heart and soul into every piece, I always want perfection. As a designer that means finding trustworthy people to work with who will help bring my designs to life. Not only do I look for partners who have the same attention to detail and quality expectations as I do, but it's important to work with people who share the same values and ethical standards too.
4) What are some of your goals?
We have some really exciting things planned for 2020, where we will look to introduce some new collections and products, develop new relationships with local businesses, grow our online market and continue to spread the message that jewellery with meaning is here to stay.
As some of you may have noticed, we’re expecting our first child in April 2020, which we are unbelievably excited about and can’t wait to meet them. This will of course bring its own rewards and challenges as I attempt to navigate business and home life!
If you’d like to know more or have any questions, please feel free to contact me either through Sarah@seekandfindjewellery.com or through our Instagram page seekandfindjewellery as I always love a chat!!!
