Case Study: Studio Pepita

Transforming thread offcuts, vintage trims, and resin into wearable works of art, a visit to jewelry designer Nona Thompson’s shop is like scrolling through a celebration of color. In this seller case study, we asked Nona for her candid thoughts on what inspired her entrepreneurial journey, along with some of the unique challenges, learnings, and opportunities that come with running a creative business built from the ground up. Read on to learn more about her experience.

Name: Nona Thompson
Shop name: Studio Pepita
On Etsy since: 2017
Based in: Buckinghamshire, UK

When did you start your Etsy shop and why?

I studied weaving when I was at university. After weaving a length of fabric, you’re left with these beautiful lengths of thread that can’t be used. Most of my fellow students threw them in the bin, but I couldn’t bear to throw away such gorgeous materials!

After graduating, I worked in the fabric and wallpaper industry, where I was surrounded by beautiful passementerie (luxury hand woven trims, usually for interiors), and I felt inspired to make my own. I started my Etsy business making tassel earrings and tassels for crafting, using gorgeous silks and cottons. Then I started experimenting with the smaller offcuts from my tassel earrings, creating eco-resin hair clips to turn those beautiful confetti thread offcuts into something beautiful and practical.

In addition to loving all things fabric, haberdashery, and trim, I’m massively inspired by bright and bizarre color palettes. It can be as simple as the packaging on some chinese dumplings, painted shutters on a house, or a stack of vintage gaming consoles. These colors make their way into my rainbow collection of resin jewelry and hair clips.

The Challenge

One of the biggest challenges when you’re a small business is that often you’re doing everything yourself. It’s not just the fun, creative bits like sourcing or designing and making new products, but it’s also the accounting, marketing, packaging, and more. Sometimes it can be really hard to tear yourself away from exploring new ideas to order more business cards or deal with missing parcels.

Similarly, I think it can be hard when a product you love doesn’t sell well. You have to find the balance between exploring your own creative passion and translating that into the bestsellers!

The Solution

Schedule time for experimentation.

Making sure that I have time scheduled for exploring ideas and experimenting, without immediately making them into a product, is very important to me. I’ve learned that I have to be strict and schedule even the fun, creative bits!

They often get pushed off your to-do list because they’re not “urgent,” but that time is really important in having a fulfilling, creative business. I’ll draw, paint, collage, and construct ideas with materials I have in the house. Sometimes it’s just as a fun activity and other times it leads into the start of a new-product process.

Empower customers with detailed listing descriptions.

I have fairly detailed product descriptions, and try to make each one a little bit different. It takes time, but it means there are more chances for customers to be shown different products, and when they decide they love it, they won’t be put off by the fact that you’re missing vital details in the description.

I also put a little bit about my brand in each product description, because a customer might have found me on a search engine and not know anything about my products or Studio Pepita itself.

Focus on quality to level up your customers’ experiences.

When it comes to customer service, I focus most on what’s within my control, because so much of running a business isn’t! For me, that’s making sure the product itself is excellent quality and is functional as well as pretty. I also make sure the packaging is beautiful.

I want customers to feel like they’re opening a special gift when they receive their Studio Pepita parcel.

Learn from your Shop Stats.

You’ll see very quickly which products people are finding and how they’re getting there. Then, you can replicate those elements in your other listings and even inspire new designs.

The Impact

Customers often buy one of my products because the colors perfectly match an outfit they got for a special occasion. I recently received a lovely review from a customer who had a hot pink and red dress they were wearing for a friend’s big birthday. It was a bank holiday coming up, but after a quick conversation, I told the customer I’d be able to make a pair of those earrings for her that afternoon and get them in the post. Having that flexibility makes you stand out from bigger stores. You hear people’s stories and you really want that special accessory or gift to arrive on time!

Because I’m a small business, I get to choose where I source my materials from, and what the look and feel will be. I think that’s what makes people fall in love with my products and the brand—they can see my passion in all I do and they love the story of saving wasted threads.

Shop the Studio Pepita collection