Cosmology is the study of the origin, development, structure, history, and future of the entire universe.
Ash and I met decades ago, we were young and poor. He had just started as a jeweller, I had always been a hype man. We fell in love and navigated taking his business from handwritten invoices in a filing cabinet, to dealer galleries to the wide, wide web. Ash Hilton Jewellery made so much sense to us and worked so well. We made homes together, children together and lots of wild plans together. In 2016, we came up with the idea of Good Gold. We wanted to distill all of our ring business learnings into its most simple form so that we could eventually step away from the workshop and follow other dreams.
Meet Siggy. She’s Ash’s sister and has worked elbow to elbow with him in the workshop since the very start. We wanted her to be our business partner for this new business, she would lead the workshop and do the maths and run all the things as we eased away from the workshop. The load would spread more evenly on a tripod.
We wanted to do things differently with Good Gold, faster and easier with lots of help. We had done everything ourselves to build Ash Hilton Jewellery, which worked so well that we were able to have enough money to pay experts we love to do the heavy lifting. We worked with Double Denim and Jarred from Outpost Studios. We did our dream collab with Mat from Think Packaging.
We found experts to help us with the Tech stuff, the googles and SEOs. We had our marketing plans and strategies and all the things. It was fun and scary and kinda surreal. Ash Hilton Jewellery always felt like an organic extension of ourselves. Good Gold felt different. If I’m honest, it never really felt totally right. A little too focused on results instead of the work. An addition, not an extension.
We moved into a bigger space to hold our two businesses. The plan was to ease off the clutch of Ash Hilton Jewellery, give Good Gold some gas and smoothly switch gears into a life where Ash and I could travel more and Siggy could stoke the home fires.
We shot for the stars and missed big time. There was covid, there was burnout, there was leaving on a big overseas mission before we put enough gas into Good Gold and we stalled out both businesses.
Relationships shifted and evolved. Ash and I split. We divided the businesses, he kept Ash Hilton Jewellery and Siggy and I kept Good Gold. We still share a workshop and tools and have found a steady way to co-parent and co-exist.
Siggy and I were at a crossroads, do we keep Good Gold going? Our financial reserves were completely gone, we could cut our losses and move on, find jobs or start new businesses. These decisions are incredibly difficult. We searched our soul and the financial records and our beautiful community. We read reviews, past emails, looked at all the beautiful photos our couples had shared with us. We knew we couldn’t walk away. We also knew we couldn’t carry on without significant outside investment.
In order for it to work, we needed our work to return to a natural extension of who we are, even though who we are now is quite a bit different to who we were 20 years ago. It needed to feel good and fun and to represent our shared values, a realm Siggy and I had never really explored amongst the two of us.
And so, another crossroads. I knew I could create a healthy return on investment if we sought a financial partnership. Unfortunately, the only way I knew how to guarantee that return was through investing in advertising on platforms that I no longer aligned with.
We had grown Ash Hilton Jewellery through organic means, incredible collaborations and press hits. I couldn’t muster the energy needed to do this myself and we couldn’t afford to hire someone to do it for us. So, we came up with the idea of trying to find an energy investor. Someone that understood the value of Siggy’s craftsmanship and the value I’d created in our digital footprint. A true partner that could inject fresh energy, a fresh perspective and a big breath of life across our glowing embers.
We found Katie. An artist, a thinker, an occupational therapist looking for a new practice. We took things very slowly. Walks and talks and tea and talks and found our greatest energies together around a campfire at a beach.
Katie is a trained visual artist with a focus on contemporary jewellery. She understands our craft, our materials, the skill that Siggy holds. She understands that the way we feel at work is the most important part of our business. We don’t rush, we don’t grind or scale. We build out, not up.
It might not work, but also it already is. We’ve identified what we’ve called our “Goldilocks Zone” which will allow us to work free from fear and without burnout. We’re spending our days thinking about art and philosophy and brainstorming how we can collaborate with other people we admire. How I can use my love of storytelling, Katie’s visual language and Siggy’s homebase of craft to structure our work days.
“We’re already doing it” is our refrain, we have faith that we will be able to achieve our goal. When we were planning for this next phase, Katie asked us a few questions. Siggy’s answers delighted me and affirmed I’d taken the correct exit at the crossroads.
What impact do you want to make on the world?
A light impact.
What inspires you in your work?
The fact that every speck of gold in the rings originally came from outer space, which makes it feel a little bit magic.
When someone experiences your product or service, what is one thing you want them to take away with them?
An ace experience. Genuine customer service and to be stoked with the realness of the ring for life.
If your brand were a person, what five attributes would they host?
Malleable, rare, magic, infinite, good.
