Award-winning jewellery designer Kathryn Reid joins Kelly to share how she turned inspiration from her family farm into a distinctive jewellery business with customers around the world.
Kathryn talks about finding her way into jewellery making after initially planning to study photography, beginning university without any previous jewellery experience and nearly dropping out when she felt behind the rest of her class. She explains how the freedom of her final year helped her find her creative direction, discover her love of wax carving and develop work inspired by the animals, landscapes and memories of her Northern Irish home.
After returning from travelling in 2020, Kathryn decided to give her jewellery business a proper go. Her first TikTok video, showing the making of her cow ear tag earrings, reached around 1.3 million views. As her audience grew, orders began arriving from around the world, and redundancy from her retail job gave her the push to take the business full-time.
Kathryn also shares the personal stories behind her sculptural animal nose rings, including the childhood dog who inspired the first design. She talks honestly about managing demand when collections began selling out, the pressure of limited restocks and how tariffs and changing customer behaviour led her to create a steadier and more sustainable way of selling.
In this episode, you will learn:
• How Kathryn found her way into jewellery making and developed her own creative style
• Why wax carving became the central technique in her jewellery practice
• How personal memories and life on the family farm inspire her designs
• What happened when her first TikTok video reached 1.3 million views
• How she managed growing demand and international jewellery orders
• Why she moved away from limited restocks towards a more sustainable business model
• What Kathryn learned from trying to outsource parts of her production
• Why she continues to finish every piece of jewellery herself
• How she has adapted to Brexit, US tariffs and rising precious metal prices
• Why growing a successful jewellery business does not have to mean building a large team
• Kathryn's advice for anyone considering training as a jeweller
• The importance of recognising challenges, learning from them and celebrating the small wins
Kathryn and Kelly also discuss product photography, creating social media content, winning awards at the Goldsmiths' Craftsmanship and Design Awards and Kathryn's ambition to take her jewellery to an international pop-up or exhibition.
Find Kathryn and her work
https://kathrynreidjewellery.com/
@kathrynreidjewellery on Instagram and TikTok
Learn jewellery making and grow your jewellery business with expert online courses, diplomas and support from Jewellers Academy at jewellersacademy.com.