In Conversation With Exclaimed Kate

Who is Kate from Exclaimed Kate?

I am a wife, mother, interior designer, and business owner. I am a talker, I love to be inspired by others, and I find joy in designers and creatives who express thoughtful insights through their processes and in their work.

What do you make?

We design beautiful keepsakes to store your precious jewellery and trinkets in. We contrast man-made precision-machined elements with the natural beauty of crystal quartz and other semi-precious stones.

Tell us a bit about Exclaimed Kate, where did it all start?

Exclaimed Kate was born out of a gift my husband designed me. Michael is an industrial designer, so he’s always gifted me unique things that he’s made, I have quite a collection now!

Coming up to our anniversary Michael had asked me what I wanted next to be made for me. At the time was taking a good, hard look at my consumer spending as I wanted to be aware of how much of it went towards companies that mass produced. I was also reflecting on how each night I was ritually removing my jewellery, the fine pieces that I treasure, and putting them into a cheap, low quality, mass produced container. This didn’t align and so my desire for a jewellery box that was just a precious as the pieces it would contain was born. I wanted the look and feel of it to be as refined as my jewellery. 

The day Michael brought the gift home, he had it wrapped in a cloth and he said “Are you ready?”. I could see just by the way he was holding himself that it was going to be great. As soon as he handed it to me, I knew that it was special. He was so proud to give it, and for me as the receiver, it was a real “delight” moment. That feeling is what I want every person who interacts with the brand to experience, that moment of wonder and delight. There is something special about the unveiling of a gift that you’ve been given and the pride of sharing that moment as the giver. I think this is where presents become gifts!

As a start-up business we have spent the last year really wanting to share our original jewellery box design and, following our launch, collections that showcase who we are as a new brand.

Our business is me just sharing our collections and asking “do you like it?”. I want Exclaimed Kate to be successful so that we can keep designing beautiful keepsakes, as I really enjoy being able to share what I love with those who love what we are doing.

We do like it! Where did the inspiration for the design come from?

I have always loved a good Art Deco inspired curve. I’m quite tactile so I love walking into spaces and finding objects to touch that have beautiful shapes, forms and textures. I’m all  about that element of precision in jewellery design too, and I love natural stones, it’s this contrast of natural and refined that I’m interested in and our material selections were drawn from.

Our iconic jewellery box that we launched with, has the precision-machined base and our solid natural crystal quartz lid, is cool to touch and weighty. That in itself is a ritual for me. I am very ritualistic when it comes to how I live. I’m the girl who puts lip balm on before bed and has a daily skincare routine, I wake up in the morning and put my rings back on. I like that that’s how I operate and so it made sense to me to be able to sort and store my jewellery in something that I’m going to interact daily also feels good.

What are some challenges you’ve faced while developing the product? 

Firstly, learning that good things take time! Everything takes so much time from the design, to the sampling, then to actually releasing a product. For this side I am so blessed to have Michael and his knowledge and experience when I feel like things are progressing slow. 

There was also a lot of early trials figuring out how we would ship semi-precious stone. We knew that the packaging was a crucial element of our buyers experience but it also had to get the jewellery box to them safely. Each jewellery box has a microfibre care cloth to help protect the crystal lid and quality packaging materials make each design ready to gift.

We’ve also been challenged by making sure that we are working with suppliers and manufacturers that honour our intention to be ethical and environmentally-conscious. We  use an agent to source the stone to ensure quality and that it hasn’t been directly mined for us, so that it’s an off-cut of something else that’s being made. We also limit use of plastics and re-use the shipping bubble wrap that we receive.

Each business and design challenge has needed to be worked through, weighed up and considerate decisions made that resonate with who we are. It’s hard work but I feel it is made easier as the effort is towards something I’m passionate about and personally love and use every day. 

You’ve spoken about where the business has come from and where it’s at now. Can you tell us what’s next? 

We’re all living in a very different and unsure world right now. Michael and I have much more time at home together so I believe that this is our time to get inspired. I think bored creatives get creative. We’re actually refining a design at the moment, we’ve just had it 3D printed, we’ve sent it off to our beautiful manufacturers and we’re waiting to hear back about pricing and quantity. So exciting and fun!

We want to use this time to keep designing, prototyping, sampling and stay inspired. 2020 is going to be the year that we never planned, so we’re just going to have to have fun with it and see what we come up with!