Katie says, “controlling molten glass with an open flame is equal parts science and art”. This balancing between precision and creativity comes across everything she and her team does at Picnic Blanket Jewellery, from building and caring for a community of fans and buyers, to creating every piece of marketing content to promote what they make.
In this interview, she has wonderful tips for other creators who’d like to get better at producing and managing video content, and she happily shared the key lessons she learned that can be useful in any creator’s life.
What can I say? If her jewellery melts hearts (mine stopped and restarted after seeing her chicken charms 🐔), her experience and advice as a creative business owner will surely awaken your brains. Read on and find the light you need. 😉 🔥
How was Picnic Blanket Jewellery born, and how much time passed until the moment when you knew that it could truly be a full-time, sustainable business?
Picnic Blanket Jewellery came to life quite organically during a time when I was craving a creative outlet and more control over my life. I had always been drawn to making things, and jewellery felt like the perfect way to blend my love of art, storytelling, and miniatures.
It actually started with a £50 bead haul from eBay and a lot of trial and error from my bedroom after work hours.
At first, it was something I did to feel creatively fulfilled, making little pieces that made me smile. But once I discovered lampwork and started sharing that process online, everything shifted. The moment I knew it had real potential was when people began responding not just to the jewellery, but to the story behind it, the handmade charm, the unpredictability of working with glass, and the emotional connection people had to the pieces.
It wasn’t an overnight shift, but I’d say within about a year of consistent posting, learning the craft, and building a community, I started to see it evolve into something sustainable. Orders were growing steadily, people kept coming back, and most importantly, I felt like I had finally found the thing I was meant to do. That’s when I made the leap and turned it into my full-time focus.
How long did it take to perfect the Lampwork glassworking technique?
Lampwork is definitely not something you pick up overnight; it’s incredibly intricate and unforgiving, which is also what makes it so magical. When I first decided to try it, I honestly had no idea just how steep the learning curve would be. There wasn’t much accessible information out there, and most of what I learned came from deep-diving into old tutorials, trial and error, and just putting in the hours at the torch.
It probably took me the better part of a year before I felt somewhat confident with the technique, but even now, after thousands of hours, I still learn something new every time I sit down to make a bead.
There’s such a fine balance between precision and creativity; controlling molten glass with an open flame is equal parts science and art.
I’d say it took a solid few months of daily practice to feel like I had any control at all, and maybe around two years before I could look at my work and say, “Yes, that’s the quality I’m proud to put my name on.” It’s definitely a craft that humbles you, but I think that’s why I love it so much.
How long did it take until you could expand and bring on a team for your brand? Was it an easy or difficult choice to make?
It took a few years of steady growth before I felt ready and able to bring on a team. In the beginning, I handled absolutely everything myself: designing, making, packing, content creation, customer service, and more. But as the business grew, especially after our social media took off, I reached a point where I simply couldn’t do it all alone without compromising either quality or my own wellbeing.
Bringing on a team was definitely not an easy decision. Letting go of control, even a little, was something I really wrestled with, especially since so much of Picnic Blanket is built on personal touches and handmade charm. Financially, it was also a leap. Up until that point, I had reinvested everything back into the business, so the idea of committing to regular pay for others felt daunting.
But I realized that if I wanted Picnic Blanket to grow sustainably and still enjoy the creative side of what I do, I needed help. I started small, bringing in people I trusted for part-time support, and slowly built up from there. The key was finding people who shared my values and genuinely cared about the work. Now, I can confidently say that building a team has been one of the best decisions I’ve made. It allowed me to focus on the bigger picture, and it’s incredibly rewarding to share this journey with others who are just as passionate about the brand.
What has changed the most since having a team? Can you highlight one thing where the change was the most influential in your creative business or creator life?
The biggest shift since building a team has been the space it’s given me, mentally and creatively. When you’re running a one-person operation, your brain is constantly juggling a thousand tasks, from customer emails to packing slips to filming content. There’s very little room left for deep creativity or long-term vision.
Having a team has allowed me to step back from the constant daily hustle and actually reconnect with why I started in the first place: to create. I’m no longer stuck in reactive mode, and that’s been transformative. I can experiment more, dream bigger, and focus on designing new pieces or refining techniques without the stress of wondering if orders are being packed or emails are being answered.
If I had to highlight one area where this change has had the most impact, it would definitely be content creation. Content is such a huge part of how Picnic Blanket grew, and it requires energy and intention to keep it authentic. Having the support of a team means I can dedicate the time to make that content more thoughtful, engaging, and true to my voice, without burning out in the process.
What is the ratio of your ready-made products and commissioned pieces regarding the number of projects?
All of our glass pieces are still made to order, which means even our non-customised items have a lead time of around 2–3 weeks. Right now, about 65% of our work consists of these non-customised pieces, while the remaining 35% are custom commissions.
Custom orders are incredibly special to us; they allow for deeper personalisation and a more emotional connection with our customers. However, because they take more time and creative energy, we’ve had to be mindful of how many we accept at any one time. To keep them accessible, we offer them year-round with a long lead time, but we closely monitor volume to ensure we don’t overextend ourselves.
As we’ve grown, maintaining a positive customer experience has remained one of our top priorities. That’s why we’re currently working on introducing a new ordering system that will help distribute demand more evenly throughout the year. This will not only improve turnaround times for custom orders but also help us establish a more consistent base level of income, while still preserving the thoughtful and handmade nature of everything we do.
Where are most of your customers located? Where do you ship the most?
Most of our customers are based in the U.S., which has become our largest market by a significant margin. That said, we’re proud to have a truly global customer base; our jewellery travels far and wide, from Alaska all the way down to Australia. It’s always amazing to think that while our studio is nestled here in Lancashire, England, our pieces are being worn and cherished all over the world.
Shipping is handled primarily through our courier partner, Royal Mail, who we’ve found to be reliable and attentive. They do an excellent job making sure each delicate glass piece arrives safely at its new home, which is incredibly important given the handmade nature of our work.
Have you tried selling on any e-commerce platforms before, or have you always had the current webshop?
Originally, I started our shop on Etsy, then started a very small Big Cartel website. I later moved to Squarespace for a more professional look. Fast forward to mid-2022, I decided to move on to Shopify, where we operate from today.
My team and I find Shopify very intuitive. The integrations available and customisation options work very well for us, I think we will definitely be staying here! We also have quite a lot of customers using the Shop App and placing orders directly there, which accounts for a larger percentage of customers than I would have originally anticipated.
With all that said, we still offer all of our non-customised pieces on Etsy, and we are also on ‘Not on the High Street’, which is a UK-based marketplace for small brands. We keep these smaller channels operating as they help us connect with customers who otherwise wouldn’t normally come across our social content.
What marketing strategies do you implement to build awareness around your brand and products? How did you do it in the early days, and how do you do it now? What are the differences and lessons that you learned along the way?
We have only ever operated a single paid social advert back in 2022, which we operated on a very small scale. We didn’t see a direct return from this paid spend, and since then, we focused entirely on producing engaging social content and growing our social platforms organically.
Currently, we are in the process of trying to improve our email marketing by launching our Picnic Post newsletter, which gives an exclusive look behind the scenes at Picnic Blanket!
Moving forward, we would like to integrate paid advertising into our strategy so we can continue to target demographics who wouldn’t normally come across our social content.
The biggest lesson I’ve learnt along the way has been that consistency and genuine engagement matter most. Viral moments help, but building a loyal community requires ongoing effort and staying true to your creative voice.
You use several channels for communication and marketing actively: your webshop, newsletter, Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, TikTok, and Pinterest. Do you have a separate strategy for each of these?
Yes and no. We don’t get a lot of crossover between followers on our social platforms, and although there are minor differences in the content we put out on the different platforms, we largely keep the content the same, and most viewers are seeing it for the first time.
We do notice the large difference in demographics between platforms, and this also alters the way in which our content is engaged with.
We find our audience on Tiktok is typically Gen Z, so we use the platform to try and connect with this audience who probably haven’t come across our brand before. Instagram, on the other hand, is more skewed towards millennials, where we try to nurture a more engaged community. We do this by trying to create a more curated feed and make the page somewhere you can visit and check in, and see what we as a brand have been doing!
Tailoring our captions and our responses in the comment sections is a small way in which we address different audiences and as we move forward and grow as a brand, we plan on targeting new platforms that we haven’t focused attention on previously. The demographics are different on these channels, so altering our posts accordingly is something we are planning to incorporate.
Recently, we have also decided to invest more time into our Pinterest page as we get a significant amount of customers from here. Although we directly integrated our Instagram feed to Pinterest, we are now posting pins directly on Pinterest, with direct links to our website. Previously, an automatically integrated post, when interacted with by a viewer, would just take you to our Instagram. This approach makes our Pinterest interaction more authentic.
How often do you send out a newsletter, and what topics do you cover in these? How many subscribers do you have, and how long have you been building your email list? Where do you promote the subscription opportunity?
We currently have over 21,000 subscribers on our email list, and we send out our newsletter, Picnic Post, about once a month. In each edition, we like to share behind-the-scenes glimpses into Picnic Blanket, things like new product sneak peeks, studio updates, creative process insights, and sometimes exclusive offers or early access for subscribers. We want it to feel like a personal, insider connection for our community.
To promote the newsletter, we use multiple touchpoints: our website has sign-up prompts on key pages, we regularly mention it across our social media channels, and occasionally we add subtle calls-to-action within packaging or order confirmation emails. The goal is to make subscribing feel like a natural part of joining the Picnic Blanket community.
You have 720K followers on Instagram and 404K followers on TikTok, to mention two of your platforms where you have a significant follower base. How long have you been communicating on these sites, and can you mention any post/tactic/strategy for both platforms that was really successful in growing your numbers?
I’ve been active on Instagram and TikTok since around 2020, right from when Picnic Blanket started gaining traction. Both platforms have been crucial for our growth, but each demands a slightly different approach.
On Instagram, consistently sharing visually stunning images and short videos of the lampworking process, combined with authentic storytelling in captions, has helped us build a loyal, engaged community. Stories allow us to share behind-the-scenes moments and day-to-day brand life.
On Instagram, trending audios over lampworking content have been especially successful, grabbing attention and encouraging shares.
TikTok thrives on fast, captivating content. Short, satisfying clips showing molten glass transforming into charms has performed very well for us. We have also seen success from spotlighting our custom pet keepsakes. I think highlighting the emotional connection that we all have with our pets is something everyone can relate to.
We’ve also focused heavily on YouTube since 2021, especially with Shorts. Similar to TikTok, trending audios over lampworking content have gone viral. One Short received over 28 million views, boosting our subscribers by over 100k overnight. This showed us the power of short-form video on YouTube as a complement to other platforms. Now, with more active users, this is an area we plan to target more and create longer-lasting relationships through community posts.
You invest a lot in creating videos to be shared across your platforms. Can you describe your video production and management process?
Video production is definitely a big part of what we do, and balancing it alongside jewellery making can be a challenge, but it’s also incredibly rewarding! Here’s how we do it:
- Managing time for recording and editing: I try to batch-create content as much as possible. That means setting aside specific days to film multiple pieces of jewellery being made, capturing different stages of the lampworking process, and getting various shots in one go. This way, I have plenty of footage to work with without interrupting the flow of making jewellery every day. For editing, I usually carve out dedicated time blocks throughout the week, sometimes breaking it up into smaller chunks, so it doesn’t feel overwhelming.
- Team involvement: As Picnic Blanket has grown, my team has become a huge support in the video side of things. Some of the team members help with filming, especially when it comes to capturing more complex angles or multiple pieces at once. We also have support with editing, social media scheduling, and optimizing videos for different platforms. This collaboration has freed me up to focus more on the creative jewellery-making side while still maintaining a steady flow of content.
We now create and schedule our content 5-10 days in advance, and we schedule everything independently across the separate platforms. This has also helped us be consistent in our storytelling so that a cohesive narrative is established. This provides a continuous theme that the engaged viewer can follow along with.
In addition, myself and the team have been using software/platforms such as Canva to help create content for our feeds/stories to reinforce our story narratives and have implemented Flodesk to help optimise our email communication in a way that is true to our brand personality/voice. - Time split between jewellery making and content creation: On average, I’d say I spend about 60-70% of my time creating jewellery and 30-40% on video production and related promotional activities. It varies week to week depending on orders, deadlines, and content campaigns, but I’ve found this balance works well to keep both the product and the storytelling strong.
For creators juggling both, my biggest advice would be to film everything you do so you can establish a content bank to fill the gaps in any new content. It is also important to plan out your content so you make sure you have a consistent theme running week to week and you can then refer to it to make sure you stay on track!
Content is always going to be hard work, but seeing your process come to life on screen and resonate with people makes it so worthwhile!
Which platform performs the best when it comes to building community and interacting with fans and customers, and which one is the best when it comes to bringing in sales?
Great question! When it comes to building community and engaging with fans and customers, I’d say Instagram takes the lead for us. It offers a perfect balance of visual storytelling, meaningful interactions through comments, and features like Stories and Reels that let us connect more personally and consistently with our audience. The engagement feels deeper there, and we find it easier to nurture long-term relationships with followers who become loyal customers over time.
On the other hand, when it comes to driving sales directly, TikTok and YouTube Shorts have been incredibly powerful for us. Their algorithm favors discovery and viral content, which helps us reach new audiences quickly and at scale. Short, eye-catching videos showing the lampwork process spark curiosity and lead viewers to check out our website or shop links.
That said, these platforms tend to be more about discovery and quick engagement, so converting those viewers into customers often happens after they’ve found us on Instagram or through email marketing.
In summary:
Instagram = best for community building and meaningful engagement
TikTok + YouTube Shorts = best for reaching new people and driving traffic/sales
Combining these platforms strategically helps us maintain a strong, engaged community while continuously attracting fresh customers.
What was your pricing strategy in the beginning, and what does it look like now? What did you learn in this area?
When I first launched Picnic Blanket, our pieces were a bit different from what we offer today. Early on, I didn’t have a formal pricing strategy; I mostly set prices based on a gut feeling about the value and finished look of each piece.
However, since 2022, we’ve significantly increased the handmade aspect of our work by incorporating fully handmade lampwork glass charms, which are much more labor-intensive and require a high level of skill. Alongside this, we’ve upgraded the quality of components in our finished jewellery to reflect the craftsmanship involved.
Because of these changes, our pricing structure evolved to better reflect the time, effort, and artistry that go into each piece. We base prices on the complexity of the lampwork, the materials used, and the overall quality, which means our margins are tighter than before but more sustainable in the long run.
One key lesson I’ve learned is the importance of valuing your craft and not underpricing your work. It’s tempting to keep prices low to attract customers, but doing so can undervalue your time and skill. Customers appreciate authenticity and quality, and setting fair prices that reflect this helps build a brand with integrity and longevity.
How do you handle and overcome setbacks, failures, creative crises, and art/creative block?
That’s definitely a tough question! When it comes to creative blocks or crises, I’ve learned that sometimes the best thing to do is simply step away and give myself some space. It’s easy to get too close to your own work, and returning with fresh eyes and a new perspective often helps me overcome those hurdles.
I also find great comfort in reading about other founders’ journeys. Knowing that struggles and setbacks are a universal part of the creative process makes me feel less alone and reminds me that it’s normal to face these challenges.
As for setbacks in the business, they’re inevitable. Whether it’s a product launch that didn’t go as expected or a missed opportunity, I always make it a point to discuss what happened with my team. Together, we review what went wrong and strategise how to improve moving forward. Failure is a huge part of growth, and we embrace it as an essential part of learning and evolving.
What do you think is the biggest challenge today for creators?
One of the most significant challenges for creators across all fields right now is cutting through the noise in an oversaturated digital landscape. The internet is flooded with content. Millions of new posts, videos, and creative works are published every day across countless platforms. This sheer volume makes it incredibly difficult for any creator to capture attention and build a meaningful, engaged audience.
With the rise of social media and content platforms like TikTok, Instagram, YouTube, and others, the barrier to entry is lower than ever, which is great for accessibility but means competition is fierce. Algorithms tend to reward rapid content turnover and high engagement, which can pressure creators to produce more and more, sometimes at the expense of quality or their own well-being.
Alongside this challenge, creators must juggle balancing authenticity with discoverability. Audiences crave genuine, relatable content, but creators often feel the need to package their work to fit trending formats or platform demands to reach more people. Maintaining a personal voice while also optimising for algorithms is a tricky balance that can feel draining and contradictory.
What are some of the important things that you’ve learned in your creator journey in general that you would be happy to share with other creators, especially those who are only thinking about trying this?
There are so many lessons I’ve picked up along the way, but if I were to share a few key ones with creators just starting out, they’d be:
- Be authentic. Your unique voice and style are your biggest assets. It’s tempting to copy others who seem successful, but that only puts you two steps behind. Trust your own vision and creativity.
- Consistency is everything. Whether it’s posting content, communicating with customers, or shipping orders, showing up regularly builds trust and momentum over time.
- Know your worth. Don’t undervalue the time, effort, and skill that goes into your work. Price your products or services fairly, and remember that if you don’t believe in your value, others won’t either.
- Learn to juggle marketing and making. It can feel overwhelming to create while also promoting yourself, but marketing is part of your craft now. Find systems or tools to help manage this balance, whether that’s batching content creation or scheduling posts in advance.
- Prioritize your customer experience. Shipping on time, answering questions promptly, and handling problems with honesty and care will create loyal customers who come back and recommend you to others.
- Work-life balance is vital. It’s easy to get burned out when you love what you do but don’t take breaks. Make sure to carve out time for rest, hobbies, and relationships to keep your creativity flowing.
- Don’t be afraid to fail or pivot. Your first idea or product might not be the final path. Listen to feedback, be flexible, and see setbacks as learning opportunities rather than dead ends.
Starting your creator journey is exciting and challenging, but if you stay true to yourself, stay patient, and keep learning, the rewards are absolutely worth it.
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