I had to open a shop to realise that I didn’t want a shop.

In 2021 we opened Carbon Gallery which housed my workshop, sold my jewellery and retailed local, hand drawn artwork.

We loved it. For a while. 

Then it started to feel like it tied us down.

We’re in a sleepy, low footfall area. We’d be open for days and not see anyone. Then I’d have a consultation with a client and 3 people would turn up, speculatively, and be irritated that I was already talking to someone else. 

The space wasn’t working for us. We put it on the market, thinking that we needed to sell it and move on somewhere else. 

What we're doing instead

This year we closed the shop January and haven’t re-opened it. Interest rates are high and house sales are slow so we’ve pulled the place off the market and have chosen to change it instead. To make it work better for us. 

We spent last month building a dedicated office and consultation space for me. I can now have quiet, uninterrupted chats with people who commission pieces and want to have ring making workshops. 

It’s amazing to have a part of the building dedicated to this. 

What's next?

We’ve taken out the retail ‘shop’ counter and are building a studio space for Craig too. He helps me to run my business (I could not do this alone!) but is also starting up his own. Now he has a large scale drawing desk, a proper place to cut picture mounts and we’re working on some shelving to store his stock and drawing materials. 

These changes have made us fall back in love with our space and be very glad that we’re staying put in Penryn.