In Tandem

In our earliest conversations, founder Jo-Lynne Oliver, made a few statements that revealed something about her.

She said “I make jewellery.”

And because she was new to the craft, she asked “Do you think anyone would buy them?”

She explained that she called her IG page (she did not yet have any other storefront) “Aslan on the Move” because she loved The Chronicles of Narnia, and Aslan was her favourite character.

She explained she never makes drawings or moulds. Every piece comes from her imagination, and she only makes one.

She confessed she didn’t have a plan for how to make this “very expensive and consuming hobby” pay for itself, but that many influencers had been in touch to offer collaboration for free pieces of jewellery.

She had participated in her first ever pop-up, apologetically pricing her earliest creations at a loss. “I’m nobody and it’s not as good as (insert name, any name.)”

I bought a piece.

And I understood she did not understand her talent yet, or what she was really creating; only this compulsion to keep making, like a siren call luring her to the truest part of her.

I wore the ring I bought often even though I never wear jewellery. I did not do that merely out of support, but because it made me feel something. It took me a few days to realise what I felt was “protected”.

Jewellery, I had learned from my work with Revival Jewels & Objects, are talismans. Originating over 100,000 years ago with shells, bones, and stones, they were worn for protection, identity and status. In modern times, we have forgotten its first two purpose.

Jo-Lynne was unaware but, I believe, sensed it. Her inspirations came from ancient symbols of this very protection, across civilisations and cultures.

Because she knew I neither owned or ever wore, jewellery of any kind, she asked me why I wore her ring. I said “It is my protection. In the uncertainty of this period of my life, when I wear it, it makes me feel like there is power within me — power and strength that seemed to be someone else’s but is actually my own, stirring in me.”

She was shocked, but in a way where everything made sense.

We understand the world, outer and inner worlds, through the frames we use to perceive it. She’d used another’s frame of “pretty rings”. But she finally understood that was not what she had been creating. Her’s was art. The mythical kind, the kind forged from the depths of her own struggles, born from Aslanian courage, the kind that alchemises a life.

One of the hardest things for artists is to embrace their own talents. This is especially so when our creativity had been a hidden part of our identity, when we had been guided, often with genuine good intentions, to follow the well-trodden, safe path. When we finally make the tentative first steps off the path, it feels discombobulating, scary and like we’re imposters, interlopers into a world that doesn’t belong to us.

Now that we have defined her positioning, her frame, her “why” and her “what”, the next step was to design an architecture for Studio Aslan — build the scaffolding that will serve to help prop up her belief in herself. Create a world for her to inhabit that, at least, keeps imposter syndrome at bay.

Every brand and marketing tool was, in fact, like a piece of jewellery for her to wear. Talismans to protect her from those familiar voices of doubt that did not belong to her, but that like so many of us, she’d used as weapons against her own magic.

No branding deck, marketing strategy, logos and other business paraphernalia will turn you and your business into something that you’re not.

That ultimate belief in yourself, in what you are bringing into the world, can only come from inside you for it to last. Anything else is bravado. Self-belief take time, and it comes from doggedly, continually building stacks of undeniable proof - for yourself - that you are what you say you are.

That part is her own journey, one that she’s begun to embrace fully. What the Foundry could do for her was give her a safe house to retreat to when she needs to rest, recharge and be reminded of who she is.

Sage House built from:

Brand Development . Logo Design . Marketing Strategy . Experience Design . Website & Copy . Printables . Brainstorm . Coaching