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What’s in a Name?
Alyssa Smith Jewellery, House of Alyssa Smith, Smith and Perry Motorsports Jewellery-all well known brand names with one thing in common- ‘Smith’.
Alyssa Smith, The Brand
I often get asked if I ever wanted to call my Company anything else other than my name, and in all honesty the answer is yes! When I was deciding on names for my jewellery brand back in 2008, I wasn’t originally keen on using my own name because I didn’t think it sounded ‘designer’ enough! But here’s the very shortened story of how the Jewellery Company I started way back in 2009 became House of Alyssa Smith, which we all know and love today!
I remember it like it was yesterday, I was only about 18 years old and I was sitting on my mums lilac patterned sofa chatting away about ‘being a successful jewellery designer one day’- a conversation that happened on a regular basis in my home with my parents, and we were thinking of names for what I could call the jewellery business I was so adamant I would be setting up. We pulled together a shortlist and at this age, I didn’t really consider the importance of a name.
Making and selling jewellery for a job is all I have ever wanted to do even since early childhood. I remember being commissioned to make jewellery for my mum’s friends weddings, birthday gifts and other events even from as young as 9 years old. Back then it was quite simple designs- gemstones and Swarovski crystals strung into gorgeous necklaces and bracelets, wire work and even intricately beaded tiaras. From the moment I learned to make jewellery, it was almost like the pliers were an extension of me. I worked fast and accurately, stringing beads, making wire wrapped butterflies to perfection and matching the most beautiful gemstone colours together. I spent all my spare time sourcing gemstones and learning about different crystals and new jewellery making techniques. Whilst all my friends were away on their first holiday’s without ‘the parents’ to places like Ibiza and Malaga I was at home working in a shop and using the money I earned to buy more jewellery supplies to learn more skills. To put it simply, I had absolute tunnel vision. I knew what I wanted to do in life and the hobby I had discovered when I was a small child grew and grew into the only thing I wanted to do in life.
Alyssa on holiday in France aged 17 visiting bead shops with her Godmother!
I didn’t feel I was missing out whilst my friends were away partying, because I was home doing exactly what I loved doing most – making jewellery on my bedroom floor. On my 20th birthday, 1 year into university, I got a jewellers bench which sat at the foot of my bed . The money was loaned to me by my lovely nan, and I had every intention of paying her back once I could, but unfortunately she sadly passed away shortly after I got my workbench. It made me even more determined to make something of myself and make her proud of me.
I’d been making jewellery for years both at university in the degree I was studying, on evening courses to get ahead, AND practicing at home in my spare time too- and I realised I still didn’t have a set name for the business I was working so hard to set up!
I went back to the note pad where my mum and I had doodled names a couple of years back and thinking back on it now, ‘Alyssa Smith Jewellery’ wasn’t even on there! I picked the name ‘Adornë’ for my new business. It seemed fitting since we ‘adorn’ our bodies with beautiful jewellery, and I remember turning the ‘A’ at the beginning into a stylised ‘A’ with a butterfly on it.
This became the name I chose for my future business and I went about making business cards, making a fancy logo and setting up a little Facebook page for the creations I was making both at university and outside of university. I remember thinking it was great because the ‘A’ at the beginning was a nod to the ‘A’ in my own name, Alyssa.
Alyssa made a name for herself in the jewellery industry and celebrates collectors all around the world!
A Lesson In Self Belief
At that point in my life I didn’t think people would ‘believe’ in a Company using my actual name. First of all- no one knew who I was and I genuinely believed people wouldn’t buy from a business with a name they had never heard of!
It wasn’t like ‘Ted Baker’ or ‘Hugo Boss’. Everyone knew those names as well-respected names, they were ‘real’ designers and I was just a young girl who loved to make jewellery. In my young years, I believed picking a name for my business which wasn’t my actual name made it seem more professional.
I ran with it for a little while, testing it out and telling people it was my business name and starting to put together a little website. I was working part time in a clothes shop at the time to fund my way through university and to help pay for raw materials to start ‘Adornë’ Jewellery- and I remember telling one of the guys I worked with what I had decided to call my business. He looked at me and genuinely laughed so much he couldn’t breathe! I couldn’t understand why the business name I had chosen was ‘so’ hilarious. We were both standing in the stock room at the time counting the surplus stock, and I just remember getting so annoyed with him- but actually it’s down to this guy, Chris- that I changed the business name and Alyssa Smith Jewellery became the lovely little brand name we all know and love today!
Chris didn’t think I had said ‘Adornë’ – what he actually heard was ‘A door nail’!!!
I mean, as a young and impressionable girl who didn’t have much confidence, it didn’t take much to throw me off track and once I had heard ‘A door nail’, it’s all I could think about! I still laugh to this day over 15 years later about this conversation, and actually my little Facebook jewellery group ‘Adornë Jewellery’ still exists from my very early days as a fledgling jeweller! It’s no longer in use but it’s there as part of my journey. At the time I was really upset. I’d spent all my money making business cards in my chosen company name, and they were all wasted.
I couldn’t think of another name I loved, nothing really felt right so in the end I just went with ‘Alyssa Smith Jewellery’ because quite simply it was my name! I learned to have a bit more confidence in myself and I told myself time and time again that every brand name MUST start somewhere, and I’d be willing to spend my entire life making MY name a household one.
Looking back, I am SO glad I changed the name before I really got started- ‘Alyssa Smith Jewellery’ means the world to me and it just makes sense now. I am a goldsmith and silversmith by trade, and with a surname like ‘Smith’ I think it was written in the stars!
My Company has remained as Alyssa Smith Jewellery for all the years I have been making and designing jewellery, but most recently we have taken the next steps to grow my beautiful little empire into the wonderful luxury designer house I know it can blossom into. House of Alyssa Smith has now been born, and it is home to all of the amazing brands I have created and built up over the years.
Alyssa Smith Jewellery (aka ASJ!) Smith and Perry Motorsport jewellery and Alyssa Smith Sport are just a few of them.
Our world renowned ‘Smith and Perry’ motorsports jewellery was dreamed up in 2013.
I suppose the next chapter of ‘What’s in a name?’ has arrived for me on a personal level after I recently got engaged! Keep my surname, double barrel or change it entirely? For my company, I will certainly be keeping the name(s) we know and love and to be honest, on a personal level I will probably be keeping my surname too. I may change my mind on that one, but I don’t think I will! I’m proud to be a Smith and always will be!
Love and light,
ALYSSA ( Sparkle Queen ) SMITH
Founder, Director and Jewellery Chief Elf Designer Maker · Alyssa Smith Jewellery
ALYSSAS DIARY
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