Instead of posting a blog this week I thought it would be a nice idea to send out a more personal letter to let you know what we’ve been up to at Polly Gasston Goldsmith during lockdown, and what we’ve been doing to make ourselves available to you in these very strange times. As you’re well aware, all our shows have been cancelled this year and we’re really missing the wonderful one-to-one with you that we so much enjoy, so we must stay in touch some other way.

There’s no question that small businesses – actually, all businesses probably – have had to change the way they market themselves and make their products available to their clients, and we’re no exception. To this end we’ve really been upping our game in the virtual world.

If you’re an Instagram fan, you can now purchase straight from our Instagram site, and the same for FaceBook. What a learning curve this has been, but it’s been fun and quite exciting too, actually, to see our products out there. On our website we’ve added PayPal as a method of payment because I know a lot of people favour this secure portal, and if you’re one of them it’s there for you now.

But we haven’t just been playing with the IT side of things. We’ve had some lovely commissions, the most recent being a Roman intaglio ring which was such a pleasure to do and with which our client was delighted. This is the perfect time to remind you about commissions too, I think. We love doing them; collaborating with you over the design and the stones, if any, and making your piece of real heirloom jewellery. All precious jewellery that you buy is an heirloom in its own right, but when you’ve had it made especially for you, to your design, it somehow becomes that much more special and important. Please do get in touch if this strikes you as just the right idea for you.

We’ve also been designing like mad and coming up with new ideas which use up our existing stock of stones because like most other things, the supply chain for stones has been a bit wobbly, so it’s been just the encouragement we need to use what we have, repurpose others, and keep up production all at the same time. All the gold we buy is recycled too, by the way, so we’re only one cog in the recycling machine – albeit a very important one! – before the jewellery even comes to you to be passed on to someone else in time.

Probably the most important point in this letter, though, is to talk to you about our pricing. As you all know, the price of gold has taken a giant leap this year, levelling out for a short while and then climbing again. We’ve had many discussions about the ramifications of this, the most obvious of which is that it costs us a lot more to produce our treasures now than it has in the past, but we’ve decided that this is not the time to put up our prices. Indeed, what we’ve decided to do is to keep our prices as they are for the rest of this year. Everything you see on the website will stay as it is, and then in the New Year it will only be sensible – and necessary – for us to review our prices and raise them to reflect the massive increase in the cost of gold. So if you’re toying with the idea of buying something gold, this is the time! Obviously it’s a wonderful investment in itself, but it’s more than that because you can wear your investment, and enjoy every moment of it. You can’t say the same for a bundle of shares…!

So as you can see we’ve been busy in all departments, and really hope you find our changes and innovations useful and encouraging. It’s been a tough year for everyone, but there are still beautiful, worthwhile things out there – locally made – for you, and we’ll be here waiting for you to come looking.

Warmest wishes on this bright winter’s day
Polly and Philippa