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Lisa Matthews jewellery boutique
is based within the quaint and picturesque village of Steyning (10 miles from Brighton) and at the entrance of a
delightful little shopping village called Cobblestone Walk. Cobblestone Walk can only be described as a treasure box
of local arts and crafts, an inspiring, unique and independant retail environment where talented artisans exhibit their
wares to passers by in a peaceful and relaxed environment. This open courtyard where artists create and designers make is
situated arround a historical grade one listed building, a crooked house with beautiful traditional timbered walls, has
been turned into a cafe and is serving some wonderful traditional English dishes.
Within Lisa Matthews Jewellery
Boutique you will find a vaiety of individually handmade jewellery pieces in all different colours and to suit all budgets.
We have simple necklace and bracelet sets within our Diva collection for under £30, these have proved popular as gifts
for friends and family birthdays and are the perfect accessory to take on your summer holidays. Lisa Matthews jewellery boutique,
unlike no other, oozes colour, creativity and the most beatiful jewellery designs but, we will let you be the judge of that.
See you soon hopefully!
For those of you
who are getting married....
Lisa Matthews has designed
an exclusive wedding jewellery collection which combines high quality materials such as Swarovski crystals and freshwater
pearls. This collection includes 50 necklace designs with matching bracelets, earrings and tiaras. We offer a bespoke service
on wedding jewellery so you can commission Lisa Matthews to make something especially for you. Also, if you come into the
shop with a fabric sample of your bridesmaids dress, you can match the colours on our Swarovski crystal chart and we will
make jewellery for your bridesmaids too, a perfect gift for them on the day.
"If it is mass prodcuced products you are
after then Lisa Matthews jewellery boutique is not the place to visit"
Back ground...
Lisa Matthews was Born in West London
and left England in 1995 to travel overseas. She has traveled extensively through
parts of Malaysia, Cambodia, Vietnam, Nepal, Australia and Europe. During a 3
week stint on one of the tropical islands of Asia, she came across a local lady designing and making her own jewellery
using a range of different materials. After a short course learning to make “black
string” anklets including a session weaving crystal rings…Lisa was hooked!
From those humble beginnings, Lisa
began buying beads and materials for herself throughout Asia and spent the following months of her travels experimenting with
different ideas, techniques and colour combinations and created a variety of different designs.
In
January 2004 Lisa and her husband Lee arrived in New Zealand with 2 boxes of jewellery which Lisa had made along the
way and together they opened a shop at Victoria Park Market in Auckland, New Zealand. Lisa Matthews quickly
carved a niche in the designer, handmade jewellery market with her innovative designing, attention to detail and a range of
stunning handcrafted jewellery for all budgets and every occasion. After a fantastic
and successful year trading in New Zealand, Lisa Matthews decided to return to the UK to replicate her unique jewellery business
and give British consumers the chance to purchase her exclusive designs.
Today, Lisa
Matthews is focused on her unique wedding jewellery collection which is hand made using beautiful Swarovski Crystals from
Austria and genuine freshwater pearls and consists of necklaces, chokers, bracelets, earrings and tiaras. Her designs range
from simple and delicate to bold and statement and are totally exquisite. She also has been working on a
fabulous 'Party' collection with lots of sparkling swarovski crystals in many different colours to accessorize those special
occassions. Think 'strictly come dancing' and you will get an idea of the type of jewellery we are talking about. Very statement
and very dazzling and can be made in any colour to suit your attire. Our Diva collection is timeless and has always been popular
since the beginning and now Lisa has stepped it up a gear and designed a new Diva Chic collection which contains Swarovski crystals
and is perfect for every day wear as well as accessorizing an evening dress. Lisa's Diva and Diva Chic collections are outsourced
and made in Thailand by the lady whom she first met on the beach who taught her the basic techniques in jewellery
making. We have built up a team since then and there are now about 15 other jewellery makers working on Diva collection
in Thailand, all working from the comfort of their own homes to the flexible hours that suit them. What a great way to give
something back. |
| Trading Fairly |
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"Thankyou for taking the
time to browse through my website! After 5 years of extensive designing and making jewellery and experimenting
with different colours and styles my attention has now moved onto finding ways to develop and grow my business and inproving
sales in order to keep my jewellery makers in Thailand busy ! I don’t have a factory set up and all my makers work
in the comfort of their own homes. I visit them every year to ensure they are well and happy and I take the opportunity to
train them on my new designs and talk about future plans. I have 4 main teams, each team has its own team leader who oversees
their own team of jewellery makers predominantly their family members, friends and neighbours. It’s a big family affair
and the way the Thai’s work together as a team is something to be admired. Most jewellery makers have their own daytime
jobs and will make jewellery in the evenings to earn an extra income. I have one team headed by Mam who has recruited her
family and neighbours to help out with the jewellery. Her family are rubber tree farmers by trade and they can only farm the
trees at night during the cooler weather as the heat during the day dries the rubber sap. After their night shift they go
home and get some sleep and upon waking they sit around their dinning table surrounded by colourful beads and black string
and work on my Diva collection.
Thanan is a male aged 40
with his wife Maew, together they head another team. Thanan used to be a car mechanic until the Tsunami came and with the
after effects and down turn in economy his business was no longer profitable and unfortunately closed down. He has found a
new talent in jewellery making and is doing a fantastic job for me. He is a quiet guy with a good nature and he has found
a new talent he never knew existed and does not seem to mind being in a ‘girly’ environment. He has just bought
his third house so I guess his business was doing pretty well before the Tsunami, I hope he gets to the stage where he can
return to it again if that’s what he wants to do.
I pride myself on not negotiating
on price with my jewellery making teams, I pay them fairly for the work they do for me. No matter how many pieces they make
for me I pay them the same rate for 1 piece or 1000 pieces. I do not and never will follow in the foot steps of large
global companies by 'nailing' my suppliers to the wall on price no matter how big my buying power is or how big it becomes
in the future. In future I aim to outsource most of my jewellery designs to be made in 3rd world countries as I believe this
trade really can be used to make a diference to the lives of peope living in such places. The jewellery products are hand
made without the necessity of using machines so they can therefore be produced by the women in these villages. The wages
they earn and comissions they earn, form sales of the products they made in the UK, can be used to improve their
quality of life by contributing towards the building and servicing of necessary village infrastructure such as water pipes,
electricity, homes, schools and so on.
I have big ambitions and
a big heart, right now I am focusing on ways growing my business to enable me to carry out these ambitions in the future so
watch this space!" |
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Did
you know….. what goes on behind the scenes of high street costume jewellery brands?
When
you walk along a main high street or browse through a shopping arcade inhabited with the usual high street super brands, take
a closer look at the type of costume jewellery on offer to you. Take note of the intricacy of the piece, does it look like
it has taken somebody a long time to make? If so, does the price reflect that?
Not
so long ago I stumbled across an outlet offering intricate necklaces for £5 each or 3 for £10. So this worked out to £3.33
each if you bought 3. One item in particular was an 18 or 20 inch necklace made very intricately with lots of tiny seed beads
all weaved together in a way that would have taken the maker hours and hours to do, probably about 5 hours work. If it’s
being sold for £3.33 you can be sure the outlet are paying no more than £1.50 to buy it in from their suppliers. This means
that the maker is earning no more than 30p an hour and if this maker is working for a company (in India for example), the
company takes a cut and supplies to an agent who exhibits these goods at a trade show who also takes a cut before selling the items to the outlet at £1.50 each, leaving
the actual maker with a lot les than 30p an hour for their time.
I will
not mention any names of brands or companies here but I would like to share with you some of my experiences with companies
supplying costume jewellery to customers just like you and all your friends and family. In the past I have supplied my jewellery
to other small shops and dabbled in the wholesale market. I took the plunge some time ago and had a meeting with a very large
jewellery company in the hope they would order a significant amount of my jewellery which in turn would not only benefit me
financially but also my team of jewellery makers in Thailand. At this meeting my trade pricelist
was cast to one side and ignored. The buyer then said and I quote “this how we work, we tell you what prices we are
prepared to pay for a particular piece”. I was offered 50p for a particular crystal ring. This price was apparently
in relation to the prices they currently pay for their silver rings to be made in China. Knowing that the basic materials could not be covered with 50p let alone
my jewelley makers time, I decided not to go ahead with the order and save everyone working for next to nothing. Is this trading
fairly?
I am
often asked to do repairs on jewellery purchased from the high street brands. Why are they breaking so easily? The problem
is that these high street brands use their size and buying power to negotiate with their Chinese suppliers to the barest minimum
price possible so they can make as much profit as possible. The Chinese are often trying to make a product to a price which
is not of their own making but rather stipulated to them, and naturally they have to try and make some kind of profit within
the prices they are given. This means they must try to source the cheapest materials possible, plastic, glass and cheap metals
plus make the items as quickly as possible so the minimum of time will be spent making a piece. This is where quality and
craftsmanship suffers, short cuts are taken and items therefore break easily. In the case of the previous company mentioned
regarding the crystal ring, they were experiencing problems with customers returning their silver rings as they were changing
from a silver colour to black, within 2 weeks! This is a classic example for China
trying to make silver rings, under pressure, for 50p.
I hope
this has given you some food for thought for your next journey into town".
Lisa
Matthews.
Frequently Asked Questions
Do you make everything
yourself?
I used to in the beginning
but these days I only have time to make about 50% of the jewellery in my shop. I mainly concentrate on wedding
accessories, custom made pieces and new designs. I have just finished designing my new Diva Chic collection, I
make the samples and then send them away to my teams in Thailand who copy them and produce my stocks ready for all
my customers to purchase. The foundation of my company lies in high quality jewellery and accessories, designed and handmade
with semi-precious stones, freshwater pearls and Swarovski crystals with lots of attention to detail!
How long have
you been making jewellery?
Since 2002. During a 2 year
trip around the world with her husband Lee Matthews, Lisa met a lady on a Thai beach who taught her the basic techniques of
jewellery making. From that point on there has not been a day go by where she have not made an item of jewellery. Since first
learning to make on the beach she has taught herself many new techniques, worked with many different types of materials and
colour combinations to create exclusive designs for my shop.
Where do you source
your materials?
I source the majority
of my materials in Thailand, it's one big excuse to return there year after year to be honest. I am sure similar materials
can be sourced locally or on the internet but that would not come with a fabulous Thai curry would it? When I go to Thailand
I turn bead crazy and there is no stopping me. I am in and out of every shop selling the slightest resemblance of a bead,
like a woman posesssed.
How long do they
take to make?
It varies depending upon
the quantity of materials used; some items like my crystal earrings can be made quite quickly whereas other
more intricate designs can take hours and hours if not days and days and require lots of patience. My biggest piece
yet is a crystal scarf made entirely from 2000 Swarovski crystal beads and 150 freshwater pearls and it took me
50 hours in total to make over about a 2 month period.
Do you sell anywhere
else?
In the past I have supplied
my unique jewellery to many bridal boutiques accross the country. These days I prefer to spend my time seeing brides at my
shop in Steyning rather than zooming accross the county trying to dominate the world with my brand.
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