independent tuesdays!

Tuesday, February 28, 2012


This weeks feature is the quirky Clotique!

I asked Clotique five questions.

Describe Clotique in 3 words.
Funky, Fun and unique

How did you become interested in making jewellery/accessories?I became interested in making jewellery and accessories when I stumbled upon Etsy.com. It was during the summer holidays, and you get bored with having nothing to do. I had around 2-3months before starting my first year at university. A friend told me about how great Etsy was and that you could purchase many unusual things that you cannot find on the high street. I looked through for hours finding many wonderful things. So then I decided I would like to try. I have always struggled to find jewellery I like in the high street shops. Its rather difficult to find anything of a kitsch/kawaii style in shops at the moment. So this is where my interest sprung from. Its not just to make money, its certainly a hobby that I love to do.


Why did you decide to set Clotique up and how did you do it?The name Clotique came from a business project I did in college just before leaving. It was for a different business idea but I loved the name so I stuck to it. The initial thought on setting up Clotique was to hopefully bring potential customers from the UK something a bit different. I started on Facebook with very little. Luckily I had some savings and help from family to get my supplies up and buy all those essential tools. Facebook was a bit of a struggle, but at the time I could not afford to make many pieces or afford the fees on Etsy even though that is only $0.20 per item. Also not having paypal was an issue, since it is essential to have for the use of Etsy. Getting fans on Facebook took a lot of time and effort, and did not really pay off. As soon as I had more of an inventory I decided it was time to move over to Etsy. This was the best choice I made. I have been selling on Etsy now for just under three months and am nearly at the 100 sales mark. Which I think is fantastic since I started with basically nothing. Once I started Etsy, I realised a lot of my potential customers where international, so I started selling everywhere and not just the UK. Id say about 80% of my sales have been international. A lot of people are afraid to do this due to costs and losing packages. To date I have not had any lost in the post, and to be honest it is not really that expensive.


What words of advice would you give to anyone wanting to set up their own jewellery/accessory brand?You need to put in a lot of effort to advertise yourself and build up a big inventory of items. I would also suggest selling on Etsy rather than Facebook or Ebay etc. Pictures of your products are also very important. They need to be light and clear so your potential customers can get the best idea possible of what your product is. You must remember that they cannot physically touch or see your product. If you decide to use Etsy, then the better your pictures and the larger your inventory equals more sales. Remember to be patient. Those first few sales can take a while, but they should roll in after!

Where do you see Clotique going in the next 5 years/ what plans do you have for the future?I have started to participate in local craft fairs. My area had none at all until recently. This was great and got Clotique a lot of new fans. I have one on the 3rd of March too, I am certainly hoping for this one to be an even bigger success! I am hoping in the future to become a part of larger fairs and travel across the UK to be in some. I love the feeling you get of people admiring your work and bringing them something unique in return. I have also started on household items. I have a few jewellery boxes and photo frames coming up in the near future, they are all very unique and I am very glad to be introducing them to the market. I am also hoping to move into sterling silver jewellery and metal stamping. These are quite expensive to get into so I best start saving!

I love Clotique's jewellery so much! Not only is it amazing some of it is Harry Potter themed! What more could you want? It refreshingly different and totally new to anything you see on the highstreet. I love the eyeball ring! How quirky!

I suggest you head over to Clotique's Facebook page or Etsy and get buying now!


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