We caught up with jeweller and gallery owner Sarah Hutchison to hear about her new line of preloved jewellery.

What’s your name and the name of your organisation?

Sarah Hutchison, SH Jewellery and SH Chance to Sparkle

Please describe your business

SH Chance to Sparkle is an offshoot from my existing business SH Jewellery. I sell preloved contemporary, handmade jewellery for my clients to an audience who already loves and understands the value of this type of jewellery. All items are listed and sold through an Instagram account.

How is your business circular?

All of the products are already in existence, I even try to reuse boxes for the jewellery where possible and reuse old packaging to send orders out also.  

Why is it important to you to adopt a circular model? 

I think consumers look more favourably at businesses that are transparent about their practices to reduce waste and be more environmentally conscious. Personally I have become more and more driven to reduce my own waste by passing on unused items and find it impossible to just ‘bin’ something. Upon discovering Vinted and seeing just how popular it is, it felt like a natural progression to adopt a similar business model for preloved contemporary jewellery.

What’s been the best thing for you about going circular? 

It’s been such a different approach to selling jewellery and has created such a nice community feeling. I have had to reach out to a whole host of new jewellers and makers that I didn’t know before and on the whole the response has been so positive and encouraging. There is such a nice buzz about selling the preloved jewellery as my clients are always so excited and often spend their money on other pieces of preloved jewellery too. It’s been a really fresh and exciting project which has been extremely time consuming and yet rewarding too.

What’s been the biggest hurdle?  

The business boomed initially, with people snapping up almost all pieces immediately. Because it is still very new, we need more people to know about it to keep it growing. I currently have just 1238 followers which is still a relatively low number. I keep getting new pieces submitted for sale but really I need more buyers to keep the pieces fresh and moving. 

In no more than 3 words, what motivates you to grow the Circular Economy? Reduce waste