INTERV I EW
niche.” At that time, as one of the only jewellers on the internet, Harriet’s work attracted the interest of the other early adopters who were able to access the proto web. “Doctors, architects and teachers were the three main groups of people who were my customers – because they were the people that were using the internet back then,” she smiles. It was Harriet’s nous for digital marketing that led to the business setting up a bricks-and-mortar shop on Green Street in Cambridge. “Back then we were very reliant on the internet: the site was really well optimised, and we were number one for the search term ‘engagement rings’ at the time – we’re not now, obviously, because things have changed – and work was just coming in, the internet had gone crazy; we had so much work that we couldn’t cope with it. Then one day Google – who I now know were getting ready to list and to be sold – decided to get people to buy the top spaces on search results. So I came into work one day and we’d gone from being number one on the search for engagement rings to being on page 68 for engagement rings – and I suddenly thought, ‘Bloody hell, you know, here we are completely with all our eggs in one basket’.” Despite Harriet Kelsall having had a website before Google even existed, the business’s success was completely at the search engine’s mercy. “We realised we needed bricks and mortar, because we needed passing trade – but we also wanted to stay optimised in an important centre.” Harriet and her team had noticed quite a few customers were from Cambridge, and at the time it felt more financially achievable than setting up in London. “So we opened this store on Green Street as a way of making sure that we didn’t have all our eggs in that basket – and we’re so glad we did,” says Harriet. The variety of creative challenges presented by her Cambridge clients is what excites Harriet and her team about the location. “It’s such an exciting place to have a shop – you never know who’s going to come in the door,” she says. “You have scientists coming in saying they want something that’s inspired by DNA, or some amazing technical concept that we have to try and get our heads round – and then in the next minute, we’ve somebody who wants that ring to be inspired by magic, or something very natural – it’s fascinating.” Over the past 15 years of working with locals to create their own bespoke engagement rings and pieces of jewellery, the designers have noticed a bit of a trend. “We’ve found that people in Cambridge very much embrace stories, and the symbolism that’s behind designs,” Harriet
“The business’s success was completely at Google’s mercy”
sometimes redesigning jewellery really does feel like therapy.” As well as overseeing her three stores, Harriet is currently chair of the National Association of Jewellers, the main trade association for professional jewellers working in the UK, and has been involved for nearly nine years – becoming the first female chair almost two years ago. Harriet is also a non-executive director on the British Hallmarking Council, an executive non-departmental public body involved in enforcing hallmarking law, maintaining standards and supporting the Assay Offices – the bodies who ensure the purity of precious metals. This task is one she’s relished, and found particularly interesting in relation to the uncertainties surrounding Brexit. “We’re just working with one Act, which is the Hallmarking Act – and the amount of work involved in separating us from the EU is just phenomenal,” she says. “We’ve got all of this mutual recognition of marks – and some countries are saying it’s fine, we’ll just carry on, but a lot of countries are saying no. For example, Ireland has said they will no longer recognise our hallmarks, which is just…” she trails off. “Lots of our members – for example, manufacturers in Britain who are making jewellery and selling it to Ireland – have
explains. “They tend to think quite a lot, and be quite interested in the process, and how we’re doing what we’re doing by hand – we draw our designs by hand here, which is unusual – and we also make photobooks of the process of the jewellery being made. Our clients love the story of the making process almost as much as they love the story behind their own jewellery.” Resetting stones and creating new jewellery from old pieces is another aspect of the business that Harriet loves. “It’s glamorous recycling,” she grins. “We do a lot of that – people come in all the time with jewellery they’ve inherited, or something they just don’t like anymore. There’s a story I often tell about a girl who came in with a pile of awful, horrid, cheap nine-carat gold jewellery – a lot of gold – and she said: ‘These are all the presents that my lying, cheating bastard of a boyfriend bought me, and I want you to melt them down while I watch.’ Okay – so we did that!” Harriet laughs. “We made this really chunky dress ring with Roman numerals of her birth dates, symbolising that she could make her own decisions. And then she came back a couple of years later with the right bloke, and we made her a beautiful big diamond engagement ring, and a wedding ring – and she’s very happy. It’s all good. But it was very funny and yes,
65
C A M B S E D I T I O N . C O . U K
F E B R U A R Y 2 0 2 0
Powered by FlippingBook